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 from Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev in Expedition 69. It ended with the departure of NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara on 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, 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
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 Cygnus NG-19 Unberthing & Release

20 January 2024 – Axiom Mission 3 Docking (Non-Expedition crew)

1 February 2024 – CRS Cygnus NG-20 Capture & 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 moved from Soyuz MS-24 swapped with Novitsky and Vasilevskaya's seat liner moved from Soyuz MS-25 for MS-24 landing

6 April 2024 – Soyuz MS-24 Undocking, official switch to Expedition 71

Next: Expedition 71

Sources:

Crew
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, will return on the MS-25 vehicle.

Vehicle manifest
For the first time during 25 March-6 April 2024, all currently active ports of ISS were occupied, that too seven in number. 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.