Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was removed from the upcoming Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) via the Crew Dragon space craft after reportedly photographing and transmitting classified SpaceX documents during training, according to multiple Russian sources.
The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center’s website shows that Artemyev, 54, has completed three spaceflights as a flight engineer and Soyuz crew commander totaling 560 days. He has also served as a Moscow City Duma deputy for United Russia, Putin’s political party, since 2019.
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According to The Insider outlet, citing rocket launch analyst Georgy Trishkin and his sources, Artemyev was pulled from the mission for violating the US State Department’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) export restrictions. He allegedly photographed SpaceX technical documentation and “sent classified information on his phone.”
Trishkin told The Insider that an interdepartmental investigation is underway.
“My contacts confirm a violation occurred, and a review has been launched. Removing a cosmonaut just two and a half months before the mission without a clear explanation is an indirect but telling sign,” he said.
“It’s very hard to imagine an experienced cosmonaut committing such a gross violation by accident,” he added.
Trishkin also claimed NASA does not want the scandal to become public.
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The Telegram channel Yura Prosti reported that Artemyev, who had been training at SpaceX’s Hawthorne facility in California, was suspended last week. He allegedly photographed SpaceX engines and other internal materials and then removed them from the premises.
On Dec. 2, Roscosmos confirmed that Andrey Fedyaev would replace Artemyev on Crew-12, stating only that Artemyev had been “transferred to another job.”
Crew Dragon – the spacecraft used for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program – is built and operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The Crew-12 mission is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 15, 2026, from either Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39 or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s SLC-40, both on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX has issued any public comment on Artemyev’s removal.
In late November, Russia damaged the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan during the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft.
Roscosmos confirmed “damage to a number of launch pad elements” following liftoff, adding that inspections are routine and repairs will be carried out “in the near future.” Video released by the agency showed a 20-ton service platform collapsing into the flame trench.
Space analysts say the damage could be serious. Newsweek, citing experts Vitaly Egorov and Georgy Trishkin, reported that the affected pad is the only one Russia can use for crewed launches.
“Since 2018, it has been the sole support facility for Russia’s International Space Station program. This means that Russia has effectively lost the ability to launch humans into space, for the first time since 1961,” Egorov wrote on Telegram.
Other experts told Ars Technica that the incident may reflect Russia’s shifting priorities and strained cooperation with NASA.
Despite the mishap, the MS-28 crew – NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev – safely reached the ISS for their 242-day mission.
Russia currently leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan for about $115 million per year under an agreement running until 2050.
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