As a representative of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Artemyev was part of SpaceX's Crew 12 mission, i.e. a four-member crew that should be launched towards the International Space Station (ISS) in February.
His fellow cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev recently took his place, and a decision was also made regarding "the transfer of Artemyev to another job," Roscosmos officials said. However, that's not the whole story, according to Russian investigative site The Insider, which reported that Artemyev, 54, was apparently removed from the Crew-12 mission for violating ITAR, a US law that seeks to protect national security by restricting the spread of sensitive information and technology.
"A cosmonaut allegedly photographed SpaceX's documentation and then 'used his phone' to send classified information," The Insider wrote, citing the work of launch analyst Gregory Trishkin.
"My contacts confirm that there was a violation and that an interagency investigation was launched. Removing someone from a mission two and a half months before the mission without a clear explanation is more of an indirect sign, but it is indicative. It is very difficult to imagine a situation in which an experienced cosmonaut could inadvertently commit such a gross violation of the rules," Trishkin told The Insider.
The outlet also cited a Russian channel's report on spaceflight on Telegram. According to the report, the violations occurred last week, when Artemyev was training at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California. He allegedly took photos of SpaceX's engines and other sensitive technology with his phone.
Crew 12 is the 12th operational astronaut mission that SpaceX will send to the ISS under contract with NASA. .
Artemyev spent a total of 560 days in space during three long-duration missions to the ISS, which were launched in March 2014, March 2018 and March 2022.
That last flight was launched just a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, starting a war that continues to this day. In July 2022, Roscosmos released photos of Artemyev and two of his fellow cosmonauts on the ISS holding the flags of two Russian-backed separatist territories in Ukraine. NASA and the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) condemned the photo shoot, stressing that the orbiting laboratory should not be used as a platform for wartime propaganda.
The Crew 12 mission is scheduled to launch on February 15 at the earliest. It will send Fedjaev, ESA's Sophie Adenot and two yet-to-be-named astronauts to the ISS for a roughly six-month stay, reports Klix.ba.
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