Anil Menon (NASA astronaut)

This article is about the astronaut candidate. For the writer, see Anil Menon.

Anil Menon
Born	Anil Menon 1976 (age 47–48) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Status	Active
Alma mater	Harvard University (AB) Stanford Medical School (MD)
Space career
NASA Astronaut
Current occupation	NASA astronaut training
Time in space	None
Selection	NASA Group 23

Anil Menon is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, emergency medicine physician, and NASA astronaut candidate.

He was a medical director at NASA and SpaceX before being selected as a candidate for an astronaut at NASA.

Education

Menon graduated from Saint Paul Academy and Summit School in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1995. He received Bachelor’s Degree in Neurobiology from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999.At Harvard, Menon conducted research on Huntington’s disease. He later spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to study and support Polio vaccination.

He attended Stanford Medical School in 2004 where he studied engineering and medicine and worked on coding soft tissue models at NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California. During his residency training in 2012 for emergency medicine, Menon joined the California Air National Guard and gained experience in wilderness medicine through support for remote adventure races like Racing The Planet.

Air Force Career

Anil Menon was transferred to the 173rd Fighter Wing for military duty and pursued a residency in aerospace medicine at UTMB-Galveston, where he published his thesis on medical kits for commercial spaceflight. During his aerospace training, he deployed twice with the U.S. Air Force critical care air transport team to treat and transport wounded warriors. He later transferred to the Air Force reserves, 45th operational group, Detachment 3 of the 45th Space Wing to provide medical direction for launch and landings.

Flight Surgeon Career

Air Force

Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician with fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine. As a physician, he was a first responder during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident. In the Air Force, Menon supported the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and the 173rd Fighter Wing, where he logged over 100 sorties in the F-15 fighter jet and transported over 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team.

NASA

Soyuz MS-06 landing where NASA flight Surgeon, Anil Menon (man with a red cap next to Mark T. Vande Hei on the bottom right portion of the image) is assisting Mark T. Vande Hei

Menon started as a NASA flight surgeon in 2014. He supported four long-duration crew members on the International Space Station as the deputy crew surgeon for Soyuz missions Soyuz 39 and Soyuz 43 and prime crew surgeon for Soyuz 52. As a member of the Human Health and Performance Directorate, he also served as the medical lead for the health maintenance system and direct return aircraft development. He lived and worked in Star City, Russia, for more than six months.

SpaceX Medical Director

Anil Menon, SpaceX Medical Director on the left seen during SpaceX Demo 2 mission

Anil Menon was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon. He was present in four Crew Dragon missions from SpaceX Demo-2 Inspiration4, especially at the times of recovery and crew suit-up.

Mike Hopkins recovered by Anil Menon holding his hand on the left

In this way he helped to launch the company's first humans to space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission as well as first civilians on Inspiration4 mission and building a medical organization to support the human system during future missions such as Starship.

Anil Menon on right egressing Soichi Noguchi during Crew-1 recovery

After rejoining NASA as a astronaut candidate, he left SpaceX in December 2021.

Anil Menon (in SpaceX black suit at the middle), assisting Crew-2 suitup

NASA Astronaut Career

NASA Astronaut Group 23

In December 2021, Menon was selected as an NASA astronaut. Menon reported for duty in January 2022 and is currently undergoing two years of initial astronaut training as a NASA astronaut candidate.

Upon completion, they could be assigned to missions that involve performing research aboard the space station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as deep space missions to destinations including the Moon on NASA”s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.

Awards and Honours

Menon is a recipient of several awards:

• Theodore Lyster Award
• SpaceX “Kick-Ass” Award
• NASA JSC Group Achievement award for Expedition 45 Medical Team
• U.S. Air Force Commendation Medal
• 173rd Fighter Wing Category V Airmen of the Year
•  William K. Douglas Award in Aerospace Medicine (UTMB)
• Air Force Voluntary Service Medal
• Stanford Emergency Medicine Resident Award for Procedural Excellence
• Stanford Emergency Medicine Residency Bedside Teaching Award, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Grant
• Stanford Medical Scholars
• Hoopes Prize for outstanding and original undergraduate thesis
• summa cum laude with highest honors for undergraduate thesis
• John Harvard Scholar, Harvard National Scholar
• Harvard College Dean’s Summer Research Award
• Jewett Community Service Award
• Westinghouse Science Talent Search Finalist
• Rensselaer Medal for Math and Science Achievement
• National Science Foundation Young Scholars Grant.

Personal life

Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants. He is married to Anna Menon, who is a Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX, and they have two children. Menon enjoys teaching general aviation as a certified flight instructor and has logged over 1,000 hours as a pilot. Menon maintains his clinical work by practicing regularly in local trauma centers, most recently California Hospital and Cedar Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles. His research efforts have led to the publication of over 20 scientific articles on emergency medicine and space medicine.