Expedition 70 was the 70th long-duration expedition to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. The expedition began with the departure of

Soyuz MS-23 Soyuz MS-23 was an uncrewed Russian Soyuz spaceflight that launched from Baikonur on 24 February 2023 to the International Space Station to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft for landing that NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio and Roscosm ...

on 27 September 2023 with Danish astronaut

Andreas Mogensen Andreas Enevold "Andy" Mogensen (born 2 November 1976) is a Danish engineer and ESA astronaut who is best known for being the first Dane to fly in space as part of the European Space Agency's Iriss program. Mogensen has also been involved in a n ...

taking over the ISS command. It ended with the departure of

Soyuz MS-24 Soyuz MS-24, Russian production No. 755 and identified by NASA as Soyuz 70S, was a Russian crewed Soyuz spaceflight launched from Baikonur on 15 September 2023 to the International Space Station. Crew They were originally assigned to Soyuz M ...

on 6 April 2024.

Background, Crew and Events

Initially, the expedition consisted of Andreas and his three

SpaceX Crew-7 SpaceX Crew-7 was the seventh crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew flight and the eleventh overall crewed orbital flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission launched on 26 August 2023. The Crew-7 mission transported four crew members t ...

crewmates, Jasmin Moghbeli,

Satoshi Furukawa is a Japanese surgeon and JAXA astronaut. Furukawa was assigned to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on long-duration missions Expedition 28/ 29 (2011) and Expedition 69/ 70 (2023-2024). Medical career Furakawa graduated fro ...

, and Konstantin Borisov from America, Japan, and Russia respectively, as well as Russian cosmonauts

Oleg Kononenko Oleg Dmitriyevich Kononenko (; ; born 21 June 1964) is a Russian cosmonaut. He has flown to the International Space Station five times as a flight engineer for Expedition 17 aboard Soyuz TMA-12, as a flight engineer on Expedition 30 and comm ...

(who later assumed the ISS command) and Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission), and another American astronaut

Loral O'Hara Loral Ashley O'Hara (born May 3, 1983) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut. Early life and education Loral Ashley O'Hara was born on May 3, 1983, in Houston, Texas, to Cindy and Steve O'Hara. She grew up in Sugar Land, Texas, where she at ...

, who launched aboard

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 Soyuz MS-22 was a Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station with a crew of three launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 21 September 2022. The launch, previously planned for 13 September 2022, was subsequently delayed to 21 Sep ...

and

Progress MS-21 Progress MS-21 (), Russian production No.451, identified by NASA as Progress 82P, was a Progress spaceflight launched by Roscosmos to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It was the 174th flight of a Progress spacecraft. History T ...

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 SpaceX Crew-8 was the eighth crewed operational NASA Commercial Crew Program, Commercial Crew flight and the 13th overall crewed orbital flight of a SpaceX Dragon 2, Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission launched on 4 March 2024. The Crew-8 miss ...

, consisting of American astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, and

Soyuz MS-25 Soyuz MS-25, Russian production No. 756 and identified by NASA as Soyuz 71S, was a Russian crewed Soyuz (spacecraft), Soyuz spaceflight from Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station. Crew MS-25 saw was the first launch of two w ...

, consisting of Russian cosmonaut

Oleg Novitsky Oleg Viktorovich Novitsky (; also '' tr.'' Novitskiy; born October 12, 1971) is a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Russian Air Force who logged over 700 hours of flight time and was awarded for bravery. He is currently serving as a Russian cosm ...

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

space tourist

Marina Vasilevskaya Maryna Vitaleuna Vasileuskaya (; born 14 September 1990) is a Belarusian cosmonaut and flight attendant for Belavia Airlines. She is the first Belarusians, Belarusian woman to be launched into space. Biography Maryna Vasileuskaya graduated from se ...

, 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 Axiom Mission 3 (or Ax-3) was a private spaceflight to the International Space Station. The flight launched on 18 January 2024, and lasted for 21 days, successfully splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. It was operated by Axiom Space and used a ...

, consisting of former NASA astronaut

Michael López-Alegría Michael López-Alegría (born Miguel Eladio López Alegría on May 30, 1958) is an astronaut, test pilot and commercial astronaut with dual nationality, American and Spanish; a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions and one International Space ...

(who previously commanded the station during

Expedition 14 Expedition 14 was the 14th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). Commander Michael López-Alegría, and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006, 04:09 UTC, aboard Soyuz TMA-9. They j ...

), Italian astronaut Walter Villadei,

ESA The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European ...

Swedish Project astronaut Marcus Wandt, and Turkish astronaut

Alper Gezeravcı Alper Gezeravcı (born 2 December 1979) is a military pilot and the first Turkish astronaut. He flew to International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Spac ...

Events manifest

Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold. Previous mission:

Expedition 69 Expedition 69 was the 69th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the uncrewed departure of Soyuz MS-22 in March 2023 with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev continuing his ISS command from Expedit ...

27 September 2023 – Soyuz MS-23 Undocking, official switch from

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 & Release 20 January 2024 –

Docking (Non-Expedition crew) 1 February 2024 – CRS

Cygnus NG-20 NG-20 was the twentieth flight of the Cygnus, an expendable American cargo spacecraft used for International Space Station (ISS) logistics missions that launched on 30 January 2024 and was deorbited on 13 July 2024. It was operated by Northrop ...

Capture & Berthing 7 February 2024 –

Undocking (Non-Expedition crew) 13 February 2024 – Progress MS-24/85P Undocking 17 February 2024 – Progress MS-26/87P Docking 5 March 2024 –

Docking 10 March 2024 – ISS Expedition 70 Change of Command Ceremony from

11 March 2024 –

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

Besides the expedition crew, Crew Dragon visited the station, carrying

, consisting of

Axiom Space Axiom Space, Inc., also known as Axiom Space, is an American privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2016 by former CEO Michael T. Suffredini and Kam Ghaffarian, the company first flew a spa ...

(formerly

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

), Walter Villadei of the Italian Ministry of Defence,

of the

Turkish Space Agency The Turkish Space Agency (, TUA) is a government agency for national aerospace research as a part of the space program of Turkey. It was formally established by a presidential decree on 13 December 2018. Headquartered in Ankara, the agency is ...

, and Marcus Wandt of the Swedish National Space Agency. The

vehicle carried expedition member Tracy Caldwell-Dyson and visitors

of Roscosmos and

, 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

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. The

Prichal ''Prichal'' (), also known as the Uzlovoy Module (UM, ) is a Russian-built component of the International Space Station (ISS). This spherical module has six docking ports (forward, aft, port, starboard, zenith, and nadir) to provide additiona ...

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

{{ISS expeditions NASA 2023 in spaceflight 2024 in spaceflight September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 March 2024 April 2024 Spaceflight Expeditions to the International Space Station