At the end of EO-4 in April 1989, due to delays in the launch schedule, Mir was left uncrewed, and all three EO-4 crew members were transported back to Earth.

The original launch date of November 21 was moved back to permit French president François Mitterrand to view the launch, which was also attended by David Gilmour and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, who made an audio recording of the event for potential use in a future project.

[2] The spacecraft arrived at the Mir station carrying a three-man crew, including French cosmonaut Chrétien on his second flight into space.

Preparations for the first EVA involving a non-Soviet/non-U.S. space traveler forced the cosmonauts to cut short a TV meeting with diplomats from 47 countries on December 8.

They attached a mount to handrails on the frustum linking the multiport docking unit to the small-diameter portion of the work compartment.

The crew took with them a cassette of Pink Floyd's newly released live album Delicate Sound of Thunder (minus the cassette box, for weight reasons) and played it in orbit; this was claimed by David Gilmour to have been the first rock music recording in space.