Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 185 km northwest of Tselinograd.

The spacecraft approached the station the next day, and it contacted the forward port, but Soyuz 25 failed to make a hard dock with the station. The cosmonauts told the ground crew that they had attempted to dock four times, but that the contact light failed to come on. While the crew waited in soft dock - the docking system probe was latched onto the Salyut docking drogue, but the probe had failed to retract and bring the craft together - the ground crew studied the problem. On the 20th orbit, Vladimir Kovalyonok undocked the Soyuz, and attempted to dock for the fifth time during the 23rd orbit, but failed again. The decision was made to return to Earth, as the Soyuz was equipped with batteries designed to last about two days, and the craft lacked fuel to attempt to dock with the port on the opposite side of the station.

Another problem of this mission was, that only rookies flew. The rules were changed, so that a rookie only could fly together with a veteran cosmonaut. Until the mission of Soyuz TM-19 this rules were not changed again.

The premature return to Earth was without additional more problems.