Shortly into the mission, the spacecraft failed to dock with the space station[1] due to an incident involving an antenna being torn off the craft by the protective launch shroud.

After a fuel-consuming attempt made in darkness for an optical rendezvous with Salyut 7 resulted in an abort in order to avoid collision, it was decided to de-orbit T-8 two days into the mission in order to ensure that the spacecraft had a sufficient amount of propellant for the de-orbit maneuver.

However, during the flight, the crew believed that the boom was still attached to the spacecraft's orbital module and that it had merely not locked into place.

With FCC permission, the crew attempted a rendezvous using only an optical sight and ground radar inputs for guidance.

The three men returned to Earth after a flight lasting just 2 days, 17 minutes, 48 seconds, and the landing proceeded normally.