The American space agency announced that Indian-origin physician Dr Anil Menon, a lieutenant colonel at the US Air Force, is among the ten new astronauts introduced by NASA for future missions.
Anil Menon has been inducted into missions ranging from research onboard the International Space Station to landing on the lunar surface and then to Mars. He was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon who helped to launch the company’s first humans to space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission and built a medical organisation to support the human system during future missions.
Anil Menon, 45, born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, is a part of the 2021 astronaut class, which NASA Administrator Bill Nelson introduced. This is the first such class in 4 years. These candidates will report for duty in January 2022 to begin two years of training.
The astronaut candidate training is slotted into five categories – operating and maintaining the International Space Station’s complex systems, training for spacewalks, developing complex robotic skills, safely operating a T-38 training jet and Russian language skills.
Selected candidates apart from Menon are Nichole Ayers (32), Marcos Berrios (37), Christina Birch (35), Deniz Burnham (36), Luke Delaney (42), Andre Douglas (35), Jack Hathaway (39), Christopher Williams (38) and Jessica Wittner (38).
“Each of you has amazing backgrounds,” Pam Melroy, former NASA astronaut and NASA’s deputy administrator, said. “You bring diversity in so many forms to our astronaut corps, and you stepped up to one of the highest and most exciting forms of public service,” she added.
Apart from being one of the Indian astronauts selected by NASA, Dr Menon was born and raised in Minnesota in Minneapolis. Dr Menon, a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon and helped launch the company’s first humans to space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission and build a medical organisation to support the human system during future missions. Before working at SpaceX, he served NASA as the crew flight surgeon for expeditions taking astronauts to the International Space Station, as per the NASA release.
Dr Anil Menon is a practising emergency physician. He has fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine. He was the first responder during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2011 Reno Air Show accident and 2015 Nepal earthquake. As the US Air Force pilot, he supported the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and 173rd Fighter Wing. Dr Menon logged 100 sorties in the F-15 fighter jet and transported over 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team.
