Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome; landing 68 km southeast of Dzheskasgan.

Soyuz TM-11 carried the first commercial flight in Soviet space flight history. Toyohiro Akiyamas network, the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), paid for the flight. The Soviets called this their first commercial spaceflight and claimed to have earned $14 million. The journalist was scheduled to make one 10 min TV broadcast and two 20 min radio broadcasts each day. Electrical power and video and TV system incompatibilities forced the Japanese to make extensive use of converters. His equipment, which weighed about 170 kg, was delivered by Progress-M spacecraft.

Following a two day solo flight Soyuz TM-11 docked with the Soyuz TM-10-Kvant1-MIR-Kristall-Kvant2 complex on December 04, 1990. Scientific work in Earth observation, biology, medicine and materials sciences with seventh resident crew of the station was done. Then Viktor Afanasiyev and Musa Manarov became the eighth resident crew

After the departure of Japanese cosmonaut Toyohiro Akiyama with the Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft Viktor Afanasiyev and Musa Manarov performed four EVAs.

The first EVA occurred on January 07, 1991 (5h 18m). They repaired the damaged hinge, tested their handiwork by closing and sealing the hatch, then reopened the hatch and went about other tasks. These included transfer outside the station of equipment scheduled for installation on later EVAs. They also removed a TV camera from Kvant2 for repairs inside the station.

The second spacewalk was conducted on January 23, 1991 (5h 33m). The cosmonauts slowly transferred a carton 6 m long to a worksite on the base block. The container held Strela, a folded boom with a pivot mechanism at its base. They attached Strela to supports which originally held the base block's launch faring. The 45-kg boom was meant to play a key role in the transfer of Kristalls twin 500 kg collapsible solar arrays to the sides of Kvant. Maximum boom length was 14 m; maximum capacity, up to 700 kg.

On January 26, 1991 (6h 20m) both cosmonauts performed the third EVA. They installed support structures on Kvant. They were meant to hold the Kristall solar arrays.

Unmanned cargo spaceships Progress M-6 and M-7 delivered fuel and other supplies to the space station.

On March 21, 1991 as Progress M-7 approached the station, it broke off its approach 500 m from the aft docking port. On March 23, 1991 the craft made a second approach, but 20 m from the rear port a controller in the TsUP detected a "catastrophic error" and broke off the approach. Progress M-7 passed within 5 to 7 m of the station, narrowly avoiding antennas and solar arrays. The cargo ship was left in orbit near the station while the problem was worked on.

To diagnose the Progress M-7 problem, Viktor Afanasiyev and Musa Manarov undocked Soyuz TM-11 from the front port on March 26, 1991 and transferred it to the aft. During approach to the aft port, they used Kurs, rather than carrying out the transfer under manual control, as was typical. They found that their spacecraft mimicked Progress M-7's behavior, veering away from the docking port. The cosmonauts completed a normal manual docking at the aft port, having determined that the problem was in MIRs aft port Kurs antenna. On March 28, 1991, Progress M-7 docked at MIRs front port.

The fourth and final EVA occurred on April 25, 1991 (3h 34m). First Musa Manarov filmed the damaged Kvant Kurs antenna. He reported that one of its dishes was missing. During the EVA the cosmonauts also replaced the camera they had removed from Kvant2 on their first EVA and repaired inside MIR.

Toyohiro Akiyama landed on December 10, 1990 at 06:08 UTC with Soyuz TM-10 spacecraft.