Soyuz TM-6 was the sixth crewed 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 Afghan cosmonaut, Abdul Ahad Mohmand.

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 Chrétien, ending his week-long spaceflight which started with Soyuz TM-7.

The Soyuz is a Soviet crewed spacecraft, developed to perform lunar missions with crew. This version called 7K will fly 4 times on the giant launcher N1, and several tens of times on Proton to fly over the Moon, which will be successful during the mission Zond 4. Soyuz will become the first spacecraft to transport living beings on the Moon during the flight of Zond 5, with two turtles. Thereafter, it is adapted to the low orbit and will fly on the Soyuz launcher to supply the Soviet Salyut and Mir stations, and the ISS.