Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 175 km southeast of Dzheskasgan.

This spaceflight was the seventh Interkosmos mission (with Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first cosmonaut from Cuba). Following a one day solo flight Soyuz 38 docked with the Salyut 6 space station on September 19, 1980. The fourth resident crew recorded the ignition and operation of the transport's main engine. As the spacecraft approached Salyut 6, the resident crew could see only its “headlights”. Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez of Cuba and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko docked without incident.

Scientific work to find reasons of the space adaptation syndrome of the crew together with the fourth resident crew was done. Other goals were Earth observation, solar observation and plant growing experiments, crystal growing experiments.

The launch and landing occurred in darkness.