The crew consisted of commander Anatoly Filipchenko, flight engineer Vladislav Volkov and research-cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko, whose mission was to dock with Soyuz 8 and transfer crew, as the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 missions did.

However, this objective was not achieved due to equipment failures.

This was the last time that the Soviet crewed Moon landing hardware was tested in orbit, and the failure seems[citation needed] to have been one of the final nails in the coffin of the programme.

This word is apparently used as the name of an active or aggressive squadron in Soviet military training, and just like Soyuz 4, the Soyuz 7 spacecraft was constructed to be the active or male spacecraft in its docking.

Docking did not occur, and the ship landed 5 days after launch, at 155 km at the northwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.