Expedition 70 & Ax-3 Crews Plus Cygnus Capture | International Space Station

Expedition 70 & Ax-3 Crews Plus Cygnus Capture | International Space Station

Expedition 70 Flight Engineers (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara, both NASA astronauts, are pictured inside the cupola with Northrop Grumman's Cygnus resupply ship outside in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Members of the Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) and Expedition 70 crews join each other for movie night inside the International Space Station's Harmony module. From left are, Ax-3 Pilot Walter Villadei; Ax-3 Commander Michael López-Alegría; Expedition 70 Flight Engineers Loral O'Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, both from NASA; and Ax-3 Mission Specialists Marcus Wandt and Alper Gezeravcı.

From left are, Ax-3 Mission Specialist Alper Gezeravcı; Ax-3 Pilot Walter Villadei; Ax-3 Commander Michael López-Alegría; Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O'Hara from NASA; Ax-3 Mission Specialist Marcus Wandt; and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency); partially obscured at top right is, Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency).

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen shows off a pair of cube-shaped Astrobee robotic free flyers inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. The autonomous robots are powered by fans and vision-based navigation and are demonstrating their ability to assist astronauts with routine chores and provide remote monitoring abilities for mission controllers on the ground.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Loral O'Hara wears personal protective equipment during scieintific maintenance duties aboard the International Space Station's Destiny laboratory module.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and Expedition 70 Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa processes cell samples inside a Kubik incubator for the Immune Cell Activation biotechnology experiment. The study is investigating ways to develop novel therapeutic tools to target central nervous system diseases and cutaneous cancers such as melanoma.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 70 Flght Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli works inside the Life Science Glovebox for the Microgravity Associated Bone Loss-A investigation. She was processing bone cell samples obtained from human donors on Earth and exploring space-caused bone loss. Results may help doctors learn how to protect and treat astronauts on long-term missions and inform treatments for bone conditions on Earth.

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus resupply ship is pictured attached to the International Space Station shortly after the Canadarm2 robotic arm grappled and installed it to the Unity module's Earth-facing port.

The International Space Station has returned to its standard configuration of seven Expedition 70 crew members conducting advanced microgravity research and orbital lab maintenance. The four Axiom Mission 3 guests ended their stay at the orbital outpost on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, and returned to Earth on Friday, Feb. 9th.

The crew of the “Freedom” Crew Dragon spacecraft for Axiom Space’s Ax-3 mission to the International Space Station included commander Michael López-Alegría (United States-Spain), pilot Walter Villadei (Italy), mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı (Türkiye) and European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt (Sweden).

The Ax-3 astronauts completed 18 days aboard the orbiting laboratory at the conclusion of their mission. The SpaceX Dragon returned to Earth with more than 550 pounds of science and supplies, including NASA experiments and hardware.

Learn more about Ax-3 at:

https://axiomspace.com/ax3

Follow Expedition 70 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 70 Crew

Station Commander: Andreas Mogensen of the European Space Agency (Denmark)

Roscosmos (Russia): Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov

JAXA: Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa (Japan)

NASA: Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara (USA)

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) 

Image Dates: Jan. 27 - Feb. 8, 2024

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