Anil Menon of Indian descent among 10 new astronaut candidates selected for future lunar mission by NASA | The Weather Channel – Articles from The Weather Channel

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NASA astronaut candidate Anil Menon

(NASA)

NASA has selected Anil Menon of Indian descent, a US Air Force lieutenant colonel and SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, among the 10 new astronauts who could fly to the moon one day.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Menon helped launch the first humans from SpaceX operated by Elon Musk into space during the “Demo-2” mission and built a medical organization to support the human system during future missions.

He also spent a year in India as a Rotary ambassador scientist studying and supporting polio vaccination. Prior to that, he worked at NASA as a crew flight surgeon for various missions that took astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician with fellowship training in land and aviation medicine. As a physician, he was a first responder during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and the 2011 Renault Air Show accident.

In the Air Force, Menon supported the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and the 173rd Fighter Wing, recording more than 100 sorties in an F-15 fighter jet and transporting more than 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team.

The US space agency announced the selection of its newest class of astronauts late Monday — six men and four women were chosen from among more than 12,000 people who applied to the space agency in March of 2020.

Once they train and become full astronauts, they will have some exciting space flight opportunities ahead, including trips to the moon one day.

The astronauts are part of the so-called generation of Artemis. The name is a reference to NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to send the first woman and first people of color to the surface of the Moon as early as 2025 (a landing date considered incredibly ambitious).

“Today, we welcome 10 new explorers – 10 members of the Artemis generation,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during the ceremony.

“It was the generation of Apollo, and it did so much for many. Now it’s the generation of Artemis.”

At Harvard University, Menon studied neurobiology and conducted research on Huntington’s disease. He attended Stanford University School of Medicine where he studied engineering and medicine and worked on coding soft tissue models at NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California.

During his aviation training, he deployed twice with the US Air Force’s Critical Care Air Transportation Team to treat and transport wounded warriors. He later transferred to the Air Force Reserves, Operational Group 45, Detachment 3 of the 45th Space Wing to provide medical guidance for launch and landing.

In 2018, Menon joined SpaceX where he began his medical program and helped prepare for the company’s first human flights. He served as the chief flight surgeon for five launches and helped start their research and astronaut programs, and worked on spacecraft development.

Menon began his career as a flight surgeon at NASA in 2014. He supported four crew members for extended periods on the International Space Station as Deputy Crew Surgeon for the Soyuz Soyuz 39 and Soyuz 43 missions and Principal Crew Surgeon for Soyuz 52.

He will report on his duty in January 2022 to complete two years of initial astronaut training as a NASA astronaut candidate.

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The above article was published from a news agency with minimal edits to the title and text.

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