Indian-Origin NASA Astronaut Anil Menon Set For Tuesday ISS Launch: Everest Rescues, Afghanistan Service And Now Space

Anil Menon, an Indian-American NASA astronaut, is due to launch on Tuesday for his first mission to the International Space Station, an eight-month stay aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft departing from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. His work in orbit will centre on the physiological effects of long-duration microgravity and testing new medical technology for future missions.

The 49-year-old is an emergency medicine physician and US Space Force Colonel, born in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrant parents. Menon has spoken openly about his pride in his Indian roots, citing the country’s expanding space ambitions as a personal source of motivation.

His India connection extends well beyond family. Following his time at Harvard, Menon spent a year in the country as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, living in Delhi’s Greater Kailash while supporting polio immunisation programmes and travelling to remote villages to help administer vaccines.

Before NASA, Menon’s career took him through Afghanistan’s frontlines during Operation Enduring Freedom and into the Himalayan Rescue Association, where he cared for climbers on Mount Everest. He has logged over 1,000 hours as a certified flight instructor, joined NASA as a flight surgeon in 2014, moved to SpaceX in 2018 to help build its medical programme and support Starship’s development, and was selected as a NASA astronaut in December 2021.

He is married to astronaut Anna Wilhelm Menon, who flew nearly five days in orbit as part of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission in September 2024. The couple have two children.