Who is Dr. Anil Menon? First Malayali-origin NASA astronaut heading to space

PALAKKAD: Dr. Anil Menon, a United States space scientist and military officer with deep roots in Kerala, is on the verge of becoming the first person of Malayali descent to travel into space. The 49-year-old NASA astronaut and US Space Force Colonel is scheduled to launch on an eight-month space mission on July 14.

Anil will join a three-member crew for the Expedition 75 mission, lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft. He will be accompanied on the long-duration mission by Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.

During the eight-month deployment, Dr. Anil Menon will lead scientific experiments examining the effects of extended space flight on the human body. His research will focus heavily on blood circulation, the structure of veins, and changes in blood composition in microgravity. He will also test specialised technology aimed at manufacturing intravenous fluids directly from the space station’s drinking water system.

An emergency medicine physician and mechanical engineer, Dr. Anil started his journey with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2014 as a flight surgeon, where he was responsible for the health maintenance of astronauts. He later joined SpaceX in 2018, continuing his work in aerospace medicine before being selected for astronaut training.

Anil’s family heritage connects to Ottapalam in Kerala's Palakkad district. He is the great-grandson of the historic Indian statesman and jurist, Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair. His father, Shankaran Menon, had moved to the United States for his studies, where he married Elizabeth Samoilenko, a native of Ukraine. Anil Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Aviation and space exploration are shared passions in his household, as his wife, Anna Menon, is also an astronaut. She previously ventured into orbit in September 2024 as part of the five-day SpaceX Polaris Dawn private space mission.