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The US space agency NASA has selected 10 trainee astronauts for its Moon mission. These include Indian-origin Anil Menon (45), who will be part of NASA’s Class 2021. NASA is working on a plan to send humans to the moon for the first time in the last 50 years. Anil is a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force and was also a flight surgeon in SpaceX.
Anil Menon has also spent almost a year in India. Then he was sent here to study and support the polio campaign. No Indian astronaut has gone to the Moon so far. India’s first astronaut was Rakesh Sharma and the first woman of Indian origin to do so was Kalpana Chawla. If Anil becomes a part of NASA’s Moon mission, he will be the first Indian-origin person to go to the Moon.
Who is Anil Menon?
Anil Menon’s parents were Indian and Ukrainian. He grew up in Minnesota, USA. He graduated in neurobiology from Harvard University in 1999. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, California in 2004. He also holds a doctorate degree from Stanford Medical School. He has also served as a crew flight surgeon for several NASA missions to the International Space Station.
Work done for SpaceX
In 2014, he started working as a flight surgeon for NASA. He was also involved in the Soyuz mission. In 2018, he joined Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Helped with medical programs and preparations for the company’s first human flight. He worked for the building of starships, the astronaut program, the launch programs.
Menon was the first responder during the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 2011 Reno air show accident.
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