It was the 13th mission to and 11th successful docking at the orbiting facility.

[1] Soyuz 37 carried Soviet Viktor Gorbatko and Pham Tuan, the first Asian and first Vietnamese cosmonaut, into space.

They swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew and returned to Earth in Soyuz 36, the resident crew later used their craft to return to Earth.

Pham Tuan of Vietnam arrived with Commander Viktor Gorbatko aboard Salyut 6 in Soyuz 37; they both returned to Earth in the Soyuz 36 spacecraft approximately eight days later.

Tuan's 30 experiments involved observing Vietnam from space, life sciences (including tests of growth of Vietnamese azolla water ferns, with application to future closed-loop life support systems), and materials processing.