It was launched on June 7, 1988, carrying the Mir EP-2 mission's three-person crew.

Their launch had been advanced by 2 weeks late in the planning stages to improve lighting conditions for the Rozhen astronomical experiment.

They jettisoned the orbital module and made ready for deorbit burn to return to Earth.

[4] They would not have been able to redock with Mir because they had discarded the docking system along with the orbital module.

Following this incident, the Soviets decided that on future missions, they would retain the orbital module until after deorbit burn, as they had done on the Soyuz Ferry flights.