Washington: Anil Menon, a NASA astronaut of Indian descent, is set to embark on an eight-month mission to the International Space Station July 14 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Born in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, Menon is an emergency medicine physician and a US Space Force colonel.
During his stint with the US Air Force, he served on the frontlines in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and also worked for the Himalayan Rescue Association, caring for climbers on Mount Everest.
Menon, 49, has also spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to study and support Polio vaccination initiatives.
He is scheduled to travel to space aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft along with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.
Menon began his career at NASA as a flight surgeon in 2014 and worked with astronauts living and working on the International Space Station.
Menonn joined SpaceX in 2018, where he started the company’s medical programme, helped prepare for its first human space flights and worked closely on the development of Starship, the super-heavy rocket and spacecraft for undertaking missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.
Menon was selected as a NASA astronaut in December 2021 and joined the two-year training next month.
Menon’s wife Anna Wilhelm is also an astronaut and travelled to space in September 2024 as part of Polaris Dawn, a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX. The spaceflight lasted for nearly five days.
While on board the ISS, Menon will conduct a series of experiments to study the physiological toll of long-duration spaceflight and examine how microgravity affects blood flow, vein structure, and blood composition in astronauts.
He will also help test technologies for producing intravenous fluids using the station’s potable water system. Such capabilities could become critical during deep-space missions where medical supplies are limited.
Menon will continue research to refine in-space production of semiconductor crystals to enable the large-scale manufacturing of components needed for high-performance computers, artificial intelligence, and improved medical devices.
Menon will also perform ultrasound investigations using augmented reality and artificial intelligence methods that could eliminate the need for medical support from Earth on future space missions.
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