Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 60 km northeast of Arkalyk.

The main goal of the mission was to repair the faulty Salyut 7 solar array. The docking with the Salyut 7 space station was not performed. When in orbit the Soyuz rendezvous radar antenna boom failed to deploy properly. Several attitude control maneuvers at high rates were made but failed to swing the boom out. As later was find out the reason was, that the antenna had been torn off when the Soyuz payload shroud separated. The crew believed the boom remained attached to the spacecraft's orbital module, and that it had not locked into place, because Soyuz rendezvous radar antenna failed to deploy properly. The abortive docking attempts consumed much propellant. To ensure that enough would remain to permit deorbit, the cosmonauts shut down the attitude control system and put Soyuz T-8 into a spinstabilized mode. Premature return to Earth. The landing then was without problems.