Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 180 km northwest of Karaganda.

It was to get the spacecraft rendezvoused with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 and to have taken spectacular motion pictures of the Soyuz 7 - Soyuz 8 docking. It became a joint mission of three spacecraft with Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8. But no rendezvous, due to a failure in the rendezvous electronics in all three spacecraft was carried out. So there was only an approaching. It is still not known exactly what the actual problem was, but it is often quoted as being a helium pressurization integrity test. The version of Soyuz 7K-OK spacecraft used for the missions carried a torus shaped docking electronics equipment housing surrounding the motor assembly on the back of the service module. This is thought to have been pressurized with helium to provide a benign environment for the electronics. It was then jettisoned after docking to lower the mass of the spacecraft for reentry. What went wrong with the electronics on all three spacecraft is still not known.

First vacuum welding in space by Valeri Kubasov using welding construction "VULKAN" was done. The crew tested three different methods of welding. The weld quality was said to be in no way inferior to that of Earth based welds. Several scientific und technical experiments were also performed.