Soyuz TM-6 was the sixth manned spacecraft to visit the Soviet Space Station Mir It was launched in August 1988, during the station's third long-duration expedition, Mir EO-3. The three person crew that was launched consisted of Research Doctor Valeri Polyakov who became part of the EO-3 crew, as well as the two crew members of the week-long mission Mir EP-3, which included the first ever Afgan cosmonaut, Abdul Ahad Mohammed.

On September 8, Soyuz TM-6 was undocked from Mir's Kvant port and redocked onto the Mir Base Block's port. It remained there until December, when it brought Titov and Manarov of the EO-3 crew back to Earth. It also landed French astronaut Jean Loup Chretien, ending his week-long spaceflight which started with Soyuz TM-7.

Dr. Valeri Polyakov remained behind on Mir with cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov when Mohmand and Lyakhov returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-5.

Its crew had a unique makeup, with a commander (Vladimir Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz-TM solo in the event a rescue ship needed to be sent to recover two cosmonauts from Mir, no flight engineer, and two inexperienced cosmonaut-researchers. One was Dr. Valeri Polyakov, who would remain aboard Mir with Titov and Manarov to monitor their health during the final months of their planned year-long stay. The other was Intercosmos cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, from Afghanistan.

The crew had a unique makeup, with a Commander (Vladimir Lyakhov) who had been trained to fly a Soyuz TM solo in the event a rescue ship needed to be sent to recover two cosmonauts from Mir. Onboard the spacecraft was no flight engineer, but two inexperienced Research Cosmonauts. One was Valeri Polyakov, who remained aboard Mir with Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov to monitor their health during the final months of their planned year-long stay.

The Soyuz was placed in an initial orbit of 195 x 228 km at 51.57 deg. It then maneuvered to a 235 x 259 km orbit.

Following a two-day solo flight Soyuz TM-6 docked with Mir-Kvant-Soyuz TM-5 on August 31, 1988.

Scientific work with the third resident crew was done. This included Earth observation, materials sciences and medical research (including observation of earthquake regions, searching for mineral resources). Topographic camera Kate 140, the MKS-M spectrometer, the Spektr 256 analysator and a handcamera were used during the Shamshed experiment. Medical experiment included studying of movementproblems in minor gravitation. Valeri Polyakov stayed on board and became member of the third resident crew.

Vladimir Lyakhov and Abdulahad Momand left their fresh spacecraft docked to Mir as a lifeboat and returned aboard Soyuz TM-5