Anil Menon begins eight-month ISS mission aboard Soyuz on July 14

Washington,UPDATED: Jul 10, 2026 08:40 IST

NASA astronaut of Indian descent Anil Menon is set to begin an eight-month mission to the Space Station on July 14, launching from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft.

Menon, 49, will travel with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. During his time on the ISS, he is due to carry out experiments on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body and work on technologies that could support future deep-space missions.

Born in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, Menon is an emergency medicine physician and a US Space Force colonel. During his service with the US Air Force, he was deployed on the frontlines in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. He also worked with the Himalayan Rescue Association, caring for climbers on Mount Everest.

He also spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to study and support polio vaccination initiatives. Menon began his career at NASA as a flight surgeon in 2014, working with astronauts living and working on the Space Station.

In 2018, Menon joined SpaceX, where he started the company's medical programme, helped prepare for its first human space flights and worked closely on the development of Starship, the super-heavy rocket and spacecraft for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in December 2021 and joined a two-year training programme the following month. His wife, Anna Wilhelm, is also an astronaut and travelled to space in September 2024 as part of Polaris Dawn, a private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX, which lasted nearly five days.

On board the ISS, Menon will conduct experiments to study the physiological toll of long-duration spaceflight and examine how microgravity affects blood flow, vein structure and blood composition in astronauts. He will also help test technologies for producing intravenous fluids using the station's potable water system, a capability that could become critical during deep-space missions where medical supplies are limited. Menon will continue research to refine in-space production of semiconductor crystals for large-scale manufacturing of components needed for high-performance computers, artificial intelligence and improved medical devices. He will also carry out ultrasound investigations using augmented reality and artificial intelligence methods that could remove the need for medical support from Earth on future space missions.

Menon's mission will combine medical and technology-focused research on the ISS, as he prepares to spend eight months in space after a career spanning military service, medicine, NASA and SpaceX.

With PTI Inputs

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