A cosmonaut has allegedly been removed from an upcoming SpaceX mission after breaking a US law, Russian media reports have said.
Oleg Artemyev was due to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in early February as part of the aerospace company's Crew 12 mission.
Owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, SpaceX often works with NASA to transport crew and cargo to the ISS.
Artemyev would've been one of four people on the six-month mission, alongside French ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and two yet-to-be-named astronauts.
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He has since been replaced by cosmonaut Andrei Fedyayev, Russian Federal Space Agency officials confirmed in a statement on Tuesday (December 2).
They went on to claim Artemyev was 'transferring to another position'.
However, rocket launch analyst Georgy Trishkin claims sources told him Artemyev was taken off the mission for a very different reason, according to independent Russian publication The Insider.
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Sources say the 54-year-old was cut after breaking a security protocol.
He allegedly photographed SpaceX documentation and then 'used his phone' to export classified information.
Sources told The Insider an interdepartmental investigation has since been launched.
Photographing documentation goes against International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a strict US law controlling the sharing or selling of defense related technology and its data, the FAA explains.
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ITAR covers physical items such as weapons, satellites and aerospace hardware, as well as the technical data and documentation linked to defence and space technology.
Some space and aerospace technologies can potentially be used for the military, so can be classified as 'defence articles' under ITAR.
Exposing their technical documents or images without permission constitutes a security risk.
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The source told The Insider: "My contacts confirm that a violation occurred and an interdepartmental investigation has been 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's indicative.
"It's very difficult to imagine a situation in which an experienced cosmonaut could inadvertently commit such a gross violation."
Artemyev was selected as part of the cosmonaut group RKK Energia in 2003 and has had three stints on the ISS.
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He developed and tested Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) equipment before his first space mission in 2014.
Artemyev served as a flight engineer and spent 169 days in orbit on the ISS as part of Soyuz TMA-12M.
He embarked on his second flight in 2018, spending 196 days in orbit, and his third mission in 2022 as station commander where he spent 194 days on the ISS.
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Artemyev has spent roughly 560 days in space across his three missions.
He has also carried out eight EVA activities, including spacewalks, accumulating more than 53 hours of EVA time.
UNILAD has contacted SpaceX, NASA and Roscosmos for comment.
Topics: Space, NASA, Science, Technology, Space X, International Space Station, Elon Musk, Russia
Ellie Kemp