At 200 meters, the Igla system was shut off, and the crew manually maneuvered around the station to dock at the front port.

For this manual approach, the same laser range finder was used as for the Soyuz T-13 docking with the uncooperative Salyut 7 station in 1985.

Despite Mir's name literally meaning "Peace", US officials during this time accused the Soviet Union of performing military experiments on their supposedly civilian space stations.

After the cosmonauts' return to Earth, Leonid Kizim in an official press conference stated that Mir was not being used for any military purposes and that "The US is accusing us of this sort of action in order to justify their own plans to extend the arms race into space."

[3] In preparation for the trip to Salyut 7, the crew loaded Soyuz T-15 with their personal belongings, plants grown on Mir, and other items.

Therefore, on 4 May, Mir was lowered by 13 km in order to expedite the approach to Salyut 7 and conserve Soyuz T-15's limited fuel supply for the transfer.

[4][5] The first EVA was on 28 May, when the crewmembers climbed outside to retrieve space exposure experiments and test the Ferma-Postroital ("girder-constructor") device.

On 31 May, Kizim and Solovyov attached measurement devices to the top of the retracted girder, then re-extended it with an aim toward studying its rigidity.

Meanwhile, between 19 and 22 August, engines on Kosmos 1686 boosted Salyut 7 to a record-high mean orbital altitude of 475 km to forestall reentry.