The Doctor in the Stars
Right now, hundreds of kilometers above Earth, Dr. Anil Menon is at work. A NASA astronaut and U.S. Space Force Colonel, Menon launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 14, 2026, for an eight-month mission. Born in Minnesota to Indian
and Ukrainian immigrants, his path to the stars was paved with an extraordinary resume on Earth. He is an emergency physician, a pilot with over 1,000 flight hours, a veteran of military operations in Afghanistan, and a first responder to disasters in Haiti and Nepal. This diverse experience made him uniquely qualified for his previous role as the first-ever flight surgeon at SpaceX.
Pioneering Medicine at SpaceX
In 2018, as SpaceX prepared to send humans into orbit, it needed a medical program built from the ground up. Anil Menon was the person for the job. He joined the company and became its medical director, developing the protocols and systems to support astronauts on commercial flights. He was the flight surgeon for groundbreaking missions, including Demo-2, which returned human launch capabilities to the U.S., and Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital mission. His work involved everything from crew suit-ups to post-splashdown recovery, essentially writing the rulebook for medical safety in the new era of private spaceflight. His thesis on medical kits for commercial spaceflight shows he was thinking about these challenges long before they became a reality.
From Supporting Crews to Joining One
Having helped others safely reach orbit, Menon took the next step in his own journey. In 2021, he was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate, returning to the agency where he had previously served as a flight surgeon for ISS crews. After completing two years of rigorous training, he became eligible for a flight assignment. His current mission, Expedition 75, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz spacecraft alongside two Russian cosmonauts. It's a space-faring family affair; his wife, Anna Menon, a former SpaceX engineer, flew to space in 2024 on the private Polaris Dawn mission.
The Science of a Long Stay
During his eight-month stay on the ISS, Menon's work is critical for humanity's next giant leaps. He is conducting a range of experiments focused on the physiological effects of long-duration spaceflight. This includes studying how microgravity affects blood flow, vein structure, and blood composition. He will also help test new technologies, such as a system for producing intravenous (IV) fluids from the station's drinking water. This capability could be a game-changer for future deep-space missions to the Moon and Mars, where resupply is not an option and medical self-sufficiency is paramount. His research is vital for understanding and mitigating the health risks astronauts will face as they venture farther from Earth for longer periods.
