Dr. Anil Menon is poised to make history as the first astronaut of Keralite descent to journey to the International Space Station. Born to parents from Ukraine and India, and raised in Minnesota, Menon maintains deep ties to his ancestral home of Ottapalam, Kerala. His selection for the 2021 NASA Astronaut Candidate Class marked the beginning of a new chapter in his career, though he is no stranger to the space agency. Before his selection, he served as a NASA flight surgeon and was instrumental in SpaceX’s human spaceflight program, where he developed the medical infrastructure necessary to support crews on long-duration missions.

Scheduled to launch in July 2026, Dr. Menon will serve as a flight engineer for the Expedition 75 mission alongside cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. During their eight-month tenure aboard the orbiting laboratory, the team will focus on high-impact research, including the production of semiconductor crystals for advanced computing and AI-integrated medical diagnostics that could redefine how space-based healthcare is conducted. In addition to these experiments, Dr. Menon will contribute to human physiology studies, acting as a test subject to help scientists better understand the effects of long-term space travel on the human body, such as aging and blood circulation.