Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 400 km southwest of Karaganda.

It was a test flight of new designed Soyuz capsule. The crew capacity of the capsule had been decreased from three to two cosmonauts to allow for space suits to be worn during launch, reentry, and potentially hazardous maneuvers. Other work for the crew included spectroscopical Earth observations. Lazarev became first Soviet Soyuz Commander, who was not a pilot.