New Delhi: Indian-origin Nasa astronaut Anil Menon has officially begun his first spaceflight after launching aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission marks a major milestone in the career of a physician, aerospace medicine specialist and former SpaceX flight surgeon whose journey to orbit spans decades of medical service, military experience and human spaceflight operations.
Menon lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina for an approximately eight-month expedition aboard the orbiting laboratory. During the mission, he will serve as a flight engineer aboard the ISS, supporting scientific research and technology demonstrations in microgravity.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Indian and Ukrainian immigrant parents, Menon has built an unusual career that combines medicine, engineering, aviation and space exploration. He completed his schooling at Saint Paul Academy and Summit School before earning a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University in 1999.
Menon studied Huntington’s disease at Harvard and spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, helping to deliver polio vaccinations. He then pursued both engineering and medicine at Stanford University, earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2004 and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2006.
His medical training continued with a residency in emergency medicine and a fellowship in wilderness medicine at Stanford. He later specialized in aerospace medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), where he also earned a Master of Public Health degree. Menon is board-certified in both emergency medicine and aerospace medicine.
Alongside his civilian medical work, Menon served as a flight surgeon with the US Air Force. He logged more than 100 sorties in F-15 fighter aircraft and participated in critical care air transport missions, helping evacuate and treat seriously injured service members. His experience later expanded to supporting launch and landing operations for the US Air Force’s space missions.
Menon’s association with Nasa began long before he became an astronaut. He joined the agency as a flight surgeon in 2014, supporting several ISS expeditions. As deputy crew surgeon and later prime crew surgeon for multiple Soyuz missions, he worked closely with astronauts before, during and after long-duration missions. He also spent more than six months living and working in Star City, Russia, supporting astronaut training and mission preparation.
In 2018, Menon joined SpaceX as the company’s first flight surgeon, where he established its medical programme and played a key role in preparing astronauts for commercial human spaceflight. He helped support the landmark Demo-2 mission, which became the first crewed orbital flight launched by a private company, and later served as lead flight surgeon for multiple crewed missions.
Nasa selected Menon as part of its 2021 Astronaut Candidate Class, and he reported for training in January 2022. During two years of intensive astronaut training, he completed instruction in spacecraft systems, robotics, spacewalking preparation, survival techniques and ISS operations before becoming eligible for long-duration missions.
His achievements have earned numerous honours, including Nasa’s Johnson Space Center Group Achievement Award, the Theodore Lyster Award, the US Air Force Commendation Medal and several academic distinctions from Harvard, Stanford and UTMB.
With the successful launch of Soyuz MS-29, Menon has transitioned from supporting astronauts on the ground to becoming one himself. His first mission to the ISS represents the culmination of years of service across medicine, military aviation and human spaceflight, while adding another Indian-origin name to the growing list of astronauts contributing to international space exploration.