Anil Menon, of Indian origin, has been chosen by NASA as one of ten astronauts for a mission to the moon.

The flight surgeon for the International Space Station is responsible for maintaining the health of the astronauts, but Dr. Anil Menon also oversees the safety of the visitors to the Air Show. That’s because he’s the NASA flight surgeon for the U.S. Air Force.

Key Highlight:

• Anil Menon is a US Air Force lieutenant colonel and was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon.
• The 45-year-old previously worked on the International Space Station.
• He was the first responder during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident.
• He has logged over 1,000 hours as a pilot and served as the lead flight surgeon on five launches.
• Menon, a former Nasa flight surgeon who joined SpaceX, is one of ten new trainee astronauts who will join the U.S. space agency’s 2021 class as it prepares for the first human missions to the moon in more than 50 years.

Anil Menon is a US Air Force lieutenant colonel and was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon. He assisted in Elon Musk’s company’s first human flights. The 45-year-old previously worked on the International Space Station as a NASA flight surgeon. Vijay Menon, a Nasa astronaut, was the first responder during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident. He has logged over 1,000 hours as a pilot and served as the lead flight surgeon on five launches.

Anil Menon, a former Nasa flight surgeon who joined SpaceX, is one of ten new trainee astronauts who will join the American space agency’s 2021 class as it prepares for the first human missions to the moon in more than 50 years.

Apart from Anil Menon, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has chosen a former firefighter turned Harvard professor, a former member of the national cycle team, and a pilot who led the first-ever all-female F-22 formation in combat for its new astronaut candidate class in four years.

They were chosen from more than 12,000 applicants and will report to the Johnson Space Center in Texas in January for two years of training.

Menon was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Indian and Ukrainian parents. He is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon.

He worked for Nasa as the crew flight surgeon on several International Space Station expeditions (ISS). Menon began his career with NASA in 2014 as a flight surgeon, supporting four long-duration crew members on the International Space Station as the deputy crew surgeon for Soyuz missions Soyuz 39 and Soyuz 43 and as the prime crew surgeon for Soyuz 52.

Menon, 45, joined SpaceX in 2018 to help launch the company’s medical program and prepare for the company’s first human flights. He was the lead flight surgeon for five launches and was instrumental in establishing their research program, private astronaut programs and working on the Starship’s development.

Menon is an emergency medicine physician in private practice with fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine. According to his Nasa profile, he was the first responder during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident.

In 1999, he earned a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in California in 2004. He also holds a doctorate in medicine from Stanford Medical School.

Menon studied neurobiology and researched Huntington’s disease while at Harvard. Later, as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, he spent a year in India researching and advocating for Polio vaccination.

According to his Nasa profile, Menon enjoys teaching general aviation as a certified flight instructor and has logged over 1,000 hours as a pilot. Additionally, he enjoys endurance races such as the Ironman and the Kokoro and backpacking with his family.

Menon is married to Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX, and the couple has two children.

NASA announces the 2021 class of 10 astronaut candidates:

Nichole Ayers
Marcos Berríos
Christina Birch
Deniz Burnham
Luke Delaney
Andre Douglas
Jack Hathaway
Anil Menon
Christopher Williams
Jessica Wittner pic.twitter.com/AoWIqMDEKk

— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) December 6, 2021