The Soyuz remained docked to the space station and served as an emergency escape vehicle for the Expedition 35 increment, before returning its crew to Earth in May 2013.

The crew enjoyed their final breakfast and participated in the traditional pre-flight blessing by a Russian Orthodox Priest.

Fifteen minutes after the docking sequence started, a fourth large rendezvous burn (Δv = 23.8 metres per second (78 ft/s)) was performed to further increase the orbital altitude of the Soyuz spacecraft.

At 13:50 UTC the Soyuz reached a distance of 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the space station, and the crew received a go for the flyaround maneuver which took the spacecraft on a slow lap around the ISS to align itself with the Rassvet module's nadir docking port.

When the seven-minute flyaround was complete, Soyuz TMA-07M initiated a short period of stationkeeping at a distance of 190 metres (620 ft).

While holding at that range, mission controllers assessed the systems of the vehicle and checked its alignment with the Rassvet docking target.

Docking of Soyuz TMA-07M to the Space Station occurred at 14:09 UTC while the two were flying over northern Kazakhstan.