NASA assigns Indian American astronaut Anil Menon to first Space Station mission

NASA astronaut Anil Menon poses for a portrait at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel

NASA astronaut Anil Menon, one of few Indian American astronauts in the US, will embark on his first mission to the International Space Station, serving for several months as a flight engineer and Expedition 75 crew member, the agency announced July 1, 2025.

Menon will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft in June 2026, from the Bailonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He will be accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. The three astronauts will spend approximately eight months aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Menon has been assigned to conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit humanity, NASA said.

The Indian American was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021. He was a graduate of the 23rd astronaut class in 2024. After completing the initial astronaut candidate training, he began preparing for his first space station flight assignment.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Menon is an emergency medicine physician, a mechanical engineer, and a colonel in the United States Space Force.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and a medical degree from Stanford University in California.

Menon completed his emergency medicine and aerospace medicine residency at Stanford and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.

The Indian American astronaut still practices emergency medicine at Memorial Hermann’s Texas Medical Center and teaches residents at the University of Texas’ residency program, when time allows.

Menon served as SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helping to launch the first crewed Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission and building SpaceX’s medical organization to support humans on future missions. He served as a crew flight surgeon for both SpaceX flights and NASA expeditions aboard the space station.

People have lived on the ISS over the last nearly 25 years, to advance scientific knowledge and conduct critical research that could benefit humanity.

“Space station research supports the future of human spaceflight as NASA looks toward deep space missions to the Moon under the Artemis campaign and in preparation for future human missions to Mars, as well as expanding commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit and beyond,” the agency said in its press release.