Russian astronaut expelled from SpaceX program, suspected of espionage

Roscosmos announced that Oleg Artemyev has been removed from the Crew-12 mission, after allegedly photographing sensitive and classified company materials during training at the SpaceX training center in Hawthorne, California.

According to reports, the 54-year-old - a veteran astronaut with three missions to the International Space Station (ISS) - photographed SpaceX documentation, engines and internal equipment, and then tried to take them off the base with his personal phone, which constitutes a violation of US rules prohibiting the export of sensitive technology outside the US.

In his place, Andrey Fedyaev – a cosmonaut who had previously flown with the Crew-6 mission in 2023 – was assigned to the Crew-12 crew, euronews reports.

Officially, Roscosmos said the change was made "due to transfer to another job," without mentioning the investigation.

The Crew-12 mission is scheduled to launch on February 15, 2026, but Artemyev's departure just months before launch has sparked widespread speculation about Russian-American security and cooperation in space.