NASA Assigns Astronaut Anil Menon to First Space Station Mission

The NASA astronaut, Anil Menon, will embark on his first mission at the International Space Station, as a flight engineer and crew member of the 75 expedition.

Menon will be launched aboard the ROSCOSMOS Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft in June 2026, accompanied by Roscosmos Cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. After launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the trio will spend about eight months aboard the orbit laboratory.

During his expedition, Menon will conduct scientific investigations and technological demonstrations to help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit humanity.

Selected as NASA astronaut in 2021, Menon graduated with the 23rd class of astronaut in 2024. After finishing the initial training of astronaut candidates, he began to prepare for his first flight assignment from the space station.

Menon was born and grew up in Minneapolis and is an emergency medicine doctor, mechanical engineer and colonel in the space force of the United States. He holds a baccalaureate in neurobiology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a medical diploma from the University of Stanford in California. Menon finished his residence in emergency medicine and aerospace medicine in Stanford and the medical branch of the University of Texas in Galveston.

In his free time, he always practices emergency medicine in Texas Medical Center in Memorial Hermann and teaches residents of the University of Texas residence program. Menon was the first SpaceX flight surgeon, helping to launch the first dragon spacecraft equipped with the NASA Spacex Demo-2 mission and build the SpaceX medical organization to support humans during future missions. He was a crew flight surgeon for SpaceX flights and NASA expeditions aboard the space station.

For almost 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the international space station, progressing scientific knowledge and conducting critical research in favor of humanity and our original planet. The search for the space station supports the future of human space flight while NASA turns to deep space missions on the Moon under the Artemis campaign and in preparation for future human missions in Mars, as well as the widening of commercial opportunities in low and beyond.

Find out more about the international space station to:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

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Joshua Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Shaneequa Vereen
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
shaneequa.y.vereen@nasa.gov