Mumbai: Indian-American Anil Menon (45) is one of 10 new astronaut candidates for NASA’s human spaceflight program, the space agency announced late Monday.
This is the second time in the last four years that NASA has selected an Indian-American for the astronaut training program. In June 2017, Indian-American Raja Chari | was selected and is currently aboard the International Space Station. Chari It is part of NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon.
Around 12,000 applications were received this year.
Immediately after the announcement, Chris Sambrowski, who was part of the historic Inspire 4/Space X mission in September, posted on Facebook: “Congratulations Anil Menon!! NASA Astronaut Class of 2021! Absolutely thrilled for this guy! He chose the best.”
with a lieutenant colonel us Air ForceMenon was born and raised in Minnesota. He was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helped launch the company’s first humans into space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission, and built a medical organization to support the human system during future missions.
Prior to this, the 45-year-old served NASA as a crew flight surgeon for various missions that took astronauts to the International Space Station. Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician, having received fellowship training in forestry and aerospace medicine.
Menon spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassador Scholar to study and support polio vaccination. She is also part of a diverse class that aims to land the first woman on the Moon as well as the first person of color in 2025-2026.
The 10-member group will begin its two-year training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in January 2022. Upon completion, they can be assigned to missions that include conducting research on the space station, launching from US soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as to destinations including the Moon on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rockets. for deep space missions.
With the addition of these 10 members of the 2021 astronaut candidate class, NASA has now selected 360 astronauts since the original Mercury Seven in 1959.
Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Vanessa WitchSaid: “Today we reach further into the stars as we move forward on the Moon and Mars once again with NASA’s latest astronaut candidate class.”
This is the second time in the last four years that NASA has selected an Indian-American for the astronaut training program. In June 2017, Indian-American Raja Chari | was selected and is currently aboard the International Space Station. Chari It is part of NASA’s Artemis mission to the Moon.
Around 12,000 applications were received this year.
Immediately after the announcement, Chris Sambrowski, who was part of the historic Inspire 4/Space X mission in September, posted on Facebook: “Congratulations Anil Menon!! NASA Astronaut Class of 2021! Absolutely thrilled for this guy! He chose the best.”
with a lieutenant colonel us Air ForceMenon was born and raised in Minnesota. He was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helped launch the company’s first humans into space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission, and built a medical organization to support the human system during future missions.
Prior to this, the 45-year-old served NASA as a crew flight surgeon for various missions that took astronauts to the International Space Station. Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician, having received fellowship training in forestry and aerospace medicine.
Menon spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassador Scholar to study and support polio vaccination. She is also part of a diverse class that aims to land the first woman on the Moon as well as the first person of color in 2025-2026.
The 10-member group will begin its two-year training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in January 2022. Upon completion, they can be assigned to missions that include conducting research on the space station, launching from US soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as to destinations including the Moon on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rockets. for deep space missions.
With the addition of these 10 members of the 2021 astronaut candidate class, NASA has now selected 360 astronauts since the original Mercury Seven in 1959.
Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Vanessa WitchSaid: “Today we reach further into the stars as we move forward on the Moon and Mars once again with NASA’s latest astronaut candidate class.”
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