Kerala-born NASA astronaut Anil Menon launches to International Space Station
NASA astronaut Anil Menon, who has ancestral roots in Kerala, launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday onboard the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft as part of Expedition 74.
Menon, 49, is the great-grandson of Sir C. Sankaran Nair, a former president of the Indian National Congress. He was born in Minneapolis to a father from Kerala and a mother from Ukraine.
Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar congratulated Menon, noting that he had visited Menon's ancestral home, Chettur House in Ottappalam, Palakkad district, last year to pay tribute to his great-grandfather.
Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan also congratulated Menon, calling his journey a historic milestone for the state.
Menon is an emergency medicine physician and a colonel in the U.S. Space Force. He served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and worked with the Himalayan Rescue Association on Mount Everest.
He began his NASA career as a flight surgeon in 2014 and later joined SpaceX in 2018, where he started the company's medical program and helped prepare for its first human spaceflights. He was selected as a NASA astronaut in December 2021.
Menon's wife, Anna Wilhelm, traveled to space in September 2024 as part of the Polaris Dawn mission.
