Four months had passed since the last Salyut 6 crew (Soyuz 32) had landed, and since the same amount of time had passed between the previous space station's long-duration crews, a December 1979 launch was considered a real possibility by observers.

However, though the secretive Soviets did launch a craft that month, it was not what observers expected.

[2] The landing date was outside a normal landing window as the craft was being flight-rated over the standard 2+1⁄2 months and the Soviets were planning to launch Soyuz 35 during the next launch window in April.

Unlike other previous long uncrewed missions, Soyuz T-1 was not powered down while docked to the space station.

But with the Soyuz T craft, the orbital module was separated prior to retro-fire, to save propellant.