5 facts about the most publicly known Russian cosmonaut (PHOTOS)

1. He initially didn't like cosmonauts

As a child, Oleg Artemyev lived with his parents in the city of Leninsk – his father was a military engineer and served nearby at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. He later admitted in an interview that cosmonauts were not well-liked in the city. There was a custom: when another crew returned to Earth from orbit, local children were sent to the roadsides to greet the heroes. In the summer, under the scorching sun, and, in the winter, in the icy wind, they had to stand, flags in hand, waiting for the cosmonauts to appear. The wait sometimes lasted two or three hours. When Artemyev himself became a cosmonaut and was greeted by children in the same way, he always tried to wave back to make their wait more enjoyable and worthwhile.

2. He decided to become a cosmonaut after meeting Vladimir Solovyov

After high school, Artemyev graduated from the Tallinn Polytechnic and, in the early 1990s, he enrolled at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. During a tour of the Mission Control Center in Korolyov, near Moscow, he met two-time ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyov, who served as the flight director for the ‘Mir’ orbital complex. Artemyev asked him how he became a cosmonaut. Solovyov replied that he had decided to test a vacuum valve he had been working on for a long time on a training model. In 1999, Artemyev began his space training. A total of 15 years passed from submitting his application to his enlistment in 2003 and his first flight in 2014.

3. Tested spacesuits

Before joining the cosmonaut corps, Artemyev worked as a test engineer, refining techniques and testing equipment for spacewalks. He personally participated in the testing of the Russian ‘Orlan-M-GN’ and ‘Orlan-VN’ spacesuits, as well as the U.S. ‘EMU’. In 2008, he also participated in the full cycle of pressure chamber tests of the advanced ‘Orlan-MK’ spacesuit. His experience as a test engineer also served him well during actual flights. In August 2018, the cosmonaut also participated in the first spacewalks in the newest ‘Orlan-MK’ spacesuits, essentially conducting their final flight tests in actual orbit. In August 2022, he encountered an emergency situation when, during a spacewalk, the voltage in his ‘Orlan-ISS’ spacecraft's battery dropped to a critical level, forcing him to urgently return to the station.

4. Participated in an Isolation Experiment

Artemyev participated in the international ‘Mars-500’ experiment, which simulated a flight to the Red Planet. He was part of the crew for the 105-day phase of the project, which took place in 2009. The international crew consisted of six people (four Russians, a Frenchman and a German). The experiment was conducted at the ground-based medical and technical complex at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The goal was to study human adaptation to long-term isolation in a confined space and working in a closed team. The participants lived in complete isolation from the outside world, communicating with Mission Control only via radio and email with an artificial signal delay (up to 20 minutes to simulate the distance to Mars). Artemyev later noted that this experience served as important psychological preparation for future real space expeditions.

5. Special Correspondent & Blogger

During his flights, Artemyev actively maintains social media accounts and interacts with his audiences, sharing stories about life on the ISS, as well as posting photos and videos from orbit. His ‘VKontakte’ page has over 220,000 followers and he also has channels on ‘Telegram’ and ‘MAX’. On March 19, 2022, the ‘TASS’ bureau, headed by Artemyev, resumed operations on the ISS.

You can learn more about the cosmonaut in the ‘True Friend Oleg Artemyev’ exhibition, which is on display at the Museum of Cosmonautics until March 8, 2026.