Historic feat: Anil Menon becomes first Malayali to walk in space

WASHINGTON: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, who traces his roots to Ottapalam in Kerala, created history on Thursday by becoming the first Malayali to perform a spacewalk. He stepped outside the International Space Station (ISS) at 6.05 pm IST for his maiden extravehicular activity (EVA), marking another milestone in India's presence in space.

Menon carried out the spacewalk as part of a crucial mission to upgrade the ISS power system. He was joined by experienced NASA astronaut Jessica Meir during the mission. The nearly seven-hour spacewalk was completed at around 1 am IST.

The main objective of the spacewalk was to install new hardware on the ISS's 3B power channel, paving the way for the installation of new solar arrays later this year. The upgrade is expected to increase the space station's power generation capacity and ensure a more stable electricity supply for scientific experiments, life-support systems and future missions.

Walking in space comes with several serious challenges. One of the biggest risks is being struck by space debris or other objects orbiting at extremely high speeds. Maintaining balance in the microgravity environment is also difficult. Astronauts must withstand extreme cold, and there is a high possibility of communication disruptions. Moving outside the International Space Station, which travels at around 28,000 km/h, is itself a demanding task. In a post on X, Anil Menon described his first spacewalk as an extremely challenging mission.

Inside the ISS, NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot provided operational support for the spacewalk. No Indian citizen has performed a spacewalk so far.

Although Anil Menon is of Malayali origin, he is a US citizen. While Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla has travelled to the International Space Station, he has not performed a spacewalk. Earlier, astronauts of Indian origin such as Sunita Williams and Raja Chari had also performed spacewalks. Anil Menon is also scheduled to perform two more spacewalks on August 13 and August 25.