Soyuz 16 was a Soviet space mission launched on December 1, 1974. It was part of the Soyuz program, which aimed to transport astronauts to and from space. The mission's primary objective was to test the new Soyuz spacecraft design and conduct scientific experiments in low Earth orbit. The crew of Soyuz 16 included cosmonauts Georgi Grechko and Alexei Gubarev. They spent 12 days in space, during which they conducted various experiments and gathered valuable data. The mission successfully demonstrated the capabilities of the updated spacecraft, contributing to future missions in the Soviet space program.