NASA astronaut Anil Menon is set for his first space mission! The Indian-origin astronaut is assuming the role of flight engineer for Expedition 75 aboard the International Space Station in June 2026. He will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft alongside cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, and here’s all you need to know about it.
Who Is Anil Menon?
Anil Menon was born to Indian and Ukrainian parents in 1976 in Minneapolis, US. He spent his childhood in Minnesota and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Later, he got a master’s in mechanical engineering and a medical degree from Stanford University in California. He completed residencies in emergency medicine and aerospace medicine at Stanford and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
He is an emergency medicine physician, mechanical engineer, and colonel in the United States Space Force. Anil Menon was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021. According to NASA’s official website, he completed his initial astronaut candidate training and began preparing for his first space station flight assignment.
Before he joined NASA, Anil Menon served as SpaceX’s first flight surgeon. He was one of the forces that helped to launch the first crewed Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission and built SpaceX’s medical organisation to support humans on future missions.
His wife, Anna Menon, is also an engineer at SpaceX. Before that, she worked with NASA for six years as a biomedical flight controller. In 2024, she also embarked on a private spacewalk mission. Talk about a power couple!
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All About His First Space Station Mission
For his first mission to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Anil Menon will be accompanied by cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. The trio will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and spend about eight months aboard the orbiting laboratory.
During the expedition, Anil Menon will conduct “scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit humanity,” NASA said in a statement.
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More details about the mission are awaited.
Cover Image Courtesy: X/NASASpaceOps & Canva Pro/Stockbyte (representative image)
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