Expedition 70

Expedition 70 was the 70th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the departure of Soyuz MS-23 on 27 September 2023 with Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen taking over the ISS command. It ended with the departure of Soyuz MS-24 on 6 April 2024.

Background, Crew and Events Initially, the expedition consisted of Andreas and his three SpaceX Crew-7 crewmates, Jasmin Moghbeli, Satoshi Furukawa, and Konstantin Borisov from America, Japan, and Russia respectively, as well as Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko (who later assumed the ISS command) and Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission), and another American astronaut Loral O'Hara, who launched aboard Soyuz MS-24 on September 15, 2023 and were transferred from Expedition 69 alongside the SpaceX Crew-7 astronauts.

However, even after several months of outfitting EVAs and RTOd heat radiator installation, six months later on 9 October 2023, the Nauka RTOd radiator malfunctioned before active use of Nauka (the purpose of RTOd installation is to radiate heat from Nauka experiments). The malfunction, a leak, rendered the RTOd radiator unusable for Nauka. This is the third ISS radiator leak after Soyuz MS-22 and Progress MS-21 radiator leaks. If a spare RTOd is not available, Nauka experiments will have to rely on Nauka's main launch radiator and the module could never be utilized to its full capacity.

The crew was later replenished by subsequent crew rotation missions in the expedition, SpaceX Crew-8, consisting of American astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, and Soyuz MS-25, consisting of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, Belarusian space tourist Marina Vasilevskaya, and American astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson. Originally, the Boeing Starliner Crewed Flight Test was supposed to dock during the expedition. Instead, it was again moved farther down the vehicle schedule to May during Expedition 71. The space station was also visited by a non-expedition crew, Axiom Mission 3, consisting of former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría (who previously commanded the station during Expedition 14), Italian astronaut Walter Villadei, ESA Swedish Project astronaut Marcus Wandt, and Turkish astronaut Alper Gezeravcı.

Events manifest Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold.

Previous mission: Expedition 69

27 September 2023 – Soyuz MS-23 undocking, official switch from Expedition 69 9 October 2023 – Nauka outfitting RtoD Add-on Heat Radiator Leak Event 25/26 October 2023 – EVA 1 (VKD-61) Kononenko/Chub: 7 hrs, 41 mins 1 November 2023 – EVA 2 (US-89) Moghbeli/O'Hara: 6 hrs, 42 mins 11 November 2023 – CRS SpX-29 docking 29 November 2023 – Progress MS-23/84P undocking 3 December 2023 – Progress MS-25/86P docking 21 December 2023 – CRS SpX-29 undocking 22 December 2023 – CRS NG-19 unberthing and release 20 January 2024 – Axiom Mission 3 docking (non-Expedition crew) 1 February 2024 – CRS Cygnus NG-20 capture and berthing 7 February 2024 – Axiom Mission 3 undocking (non-Expedition crew) 13 February 2024 – Progress MS-24/85P undocking 17 February 2024 – Progress MS-26/87P docking 5 March 2024 – SpaceX Crew-8 docking 10 March 2024 – ISS Expedition 70 change of command ceremony from Andreas Mogensen to Oleg Kononenko 11 March 2024 – SpaceX Crew-7 undocking 23 March 2024 – CRS SpX-30 docking 25 March 2024 – Soyuz MS-25 docking (Expedition 70/71 & ISS EP-21) 29 March 2024 – Kononenko and Chub's seat liner from Soyuz MS-24 swapped with Novitsky and Vasilevskaya's seat liner from Soyuz MS-25 for MS-24 landing 6 April 2024 – Soyuz MS-24 undocking, official switch to Expedition 71

Next: Expedition 71

Crew FlightAstronautIncrement 70aIncrement 70bIncrement 70cIncrement 70d27 Sep 2023 - 5 Mar 20245 - 11 Mar 202411 - 25 Mar 202425 Mar - 6 Apr 2024Soyuz MS-24 Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos Fifth spaceflightFlight engineerCommander Nikolai Chub, Roscosmos First spaceflightFlight engineer Loral O'Hara, NASA First spaceflightFlight engineerSpaceX Crew-7 Jasmin Moghbeli, NASA First spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationAndreas Mogensen, ESA Second spaceflightCommander Off station Satoshi Furukawa, JAXA Second and last spaceflightFlight engineerOff station Konstantin Borisov, Roscosmos First spaceflightFlight engineerOff stationSpaceX Crew-8 Matthew Dominick, NASA First spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Michael Barratt, NASA Third spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Jeanette Epps, NASA Only spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Alexander Grebenkin, Roscosmos First spaceflightOff stationFlight engineerSoyuz MS-25 Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, NASA Third spaceflightOff stationFlight engineer Besides the expedition crew, Crew Dragon visited the station, carrying Axiom Mission 3, consisting of Michael López-Alegría of Axiom Space (formerly NASA), Walter Villadei of the Italian Ministry of Defence, Alper Gezeravcı of the Turkish Space Agency, and Marcus Wandt of the Swedish National Space Agency.

The Soyuz MS-25 vehicle carried expedition member Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and visitors Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos and Marina Vasilevskaya, a flight attendant trained by the Belarus Space Agency for ISS EP-21. One week after docking, Novitsky and Vasilevskaya returned with expedition member Loral O'Hara on the Soyuz MS-24 vehicle. Meanwhile, Kononenko and Chub, who launched on MS-24, returned on the MS-25 vehicle.

Vehicle manifest For the first time, during 25 March–6 April 2024, all seven currently active ports of ISS were occupied. VehiclePurposePortDocking/capture dateUndocking dateVehicles inherited from Expedition 69 Progress MS-23/84PCargoPoisk zenith 24 May 202329 Nov 2023 CRS NG-19CargoUnity nadir4 Aug 202322 Dec 2023 Progress MS-24/85PCargoZvezda aft25 Aug 202313 Feb 2024 SpaceX Crew-7 "Endurance"Exp. 69/70 crewHarmony zenith 27 Aug 202311 Mar 2024 Soyuz MS-24/70S "Antares"Exp. 69/70 crewRassvet nadir15 Sep 20236 Apr 2024Vehicles docked during Expedition 70 CRS SpX-29CargoHarmony forward11 Nov 202321 Dec 2023 Progress MS-25/86PCargoPoisk zenith 3 Dec 202328 May 2024 (Exp. 71) Ax-3 "Freedom"Visiting commercial missionHarmony forward20 Jan 20247 Feb 2024 CRS NG-20CargoUnity nadir1 Feb 202412 Jul 2024 (Exp. 71) Progress MS-26/87PCargoZvezda aft17 Feb 2024 13 Aug 2024 (Exp. 71) SpaceX Crew-8 "Endeavour"Exp. 70/71/72 crewHarmony forward5 Mar 20242 May 2024 (Exp. 71; redock)Harmony zenith2 May 2024 (Exp. 71; redock)23 Oct 2024 (Exp. 72) CRS SpX-30CargoHarmony zenith23 Mar 202428 Apr 2024 (Exp. 71) Soyuz MS-25/71S "Kazbek"Exp. 70/71 crew, Visiting Expedition 21Prichal nadir25 Mar 202423 Sep 2024 (Exp. 71) Segment U.S. Orbital Segment Russian Orbital SegmentPeriodHarmony forwardHarmony zenithHarmony nadirUnity nadirRassvet nadirPrichal nadirPoisk zenithZvezda aft27 Sep–11 Nov 2023 VacantSpaceX Crew-7 VacantCRS NG-19 Soyuz MS-24 VacantProgress MS-23Progress MS-2411–29 Nov 2023CRS SpX-2929 Nov–3 Dec 2023Vacant3–21 Dec 2023Progress MS-2521–22 Dec 2023 Vacant 22 Dec 2023–20 Jan 2024 Vacant 20 Jan–1 Feb 2024Ax-3 1–7 Feb 2024 CRS NG-20 7–13 Feb 2024Vacant13–17 Feb 2024Vacant17 Feb–5 Mar 2024Progress MS-265–11 Mar 2024SpaceX Crew-811–23 Mar 2024Vacant23–25 Mar 2024CRS SpX-30 25 Mar–6 Apr 2024Soyuz MS-25 The Prichal aft, forward, starboard, and aft ports all have yet to be used since the module originally docked to the station and are not included in the table.

References