In a somewhat unexpected move, Roscosmos has announced a change in personnel for the upcoming Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. Andrey Fedyaev will now be taking the place of Oleg Artemyev on the Crew-12 mission, with a launch date targeted for as early as February.
The reason provided by Roscosmos for this swap was brief. According to their social media announcement on December 2nd, "This decision was made due to Oleg Artemyev’s transfer to another job." However, this explanation is unusual given the mission's proximity and the common reasons for such changes being health or performance-related concerns.
A NASA spokesperson has directed all inquiries regarding this reassignment to Roscosmos, an agency not known for its responsiveness to Western media.
Artemyev is a seasoned cosmonaut with a total of 560 days in space from his three long-duration missions to the ISS, all conducted on Soyuz spacecraft. While a few Russian cosmonauts have flown on Crew Dragon, Artemyev would have been the first to have prior experience in space.
Despite the lack of official details from either NASA or Roscosmos, speculation has emerged in Russian media suggesting that Artemyev's removal may be linked to him taking pictures of SpaceX equipment and documentation during Crew Dragon training at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California.
The nature of these images is unclear, and it’s unknown whether they were taken with malicious intent to gather sensitive information, or simply out of curiosity. Regardless, this action could be seen as a violation of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which strictly controls the export of launch vehicles and other spacecraft components. "Violating ITAR could result in Artemyev’s visa being revoked," as some reports suggest.
Georgy Trishkin, a Russian space analyst, suggests a more benign explanation. In a post on December 3rd, Trishkin mentioned that Artemyev may have taken the images to use with an online translator or for later posting online. “So, it seems this is a case of negligence, not espionage,” Trishkin concluded.
With this reassignment, Fedyaev will now become the first Russian cosmonaut to fly on Crew Dragon for a second time. He previously spent six months on the station during the Crew-6 mission in 2023. NASA has yet to announce official crew assignments for Crew-12. According to the European Space Agency, Sophie Adenot will be a part of Crew-12. NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir have also been in training for the mission.