This Indian-American just got selected by NASA for its human space flight programme

Dec 8, 2021

Credit: NASA

Family

He was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants. Dr. Menon is married to Anna Menon who works at SpaceX, and they have two children.

Credit: NASA

Pilot

He is a certified flight instructor and has logged over 1,000 hours as a pilot.

Credit: NASA

US Air Force

Dr. Menon is a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force.

Credit: NASA

Education

He got his Bachelor’s degree in Neurobiology from Harvard University in 1999 and his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2004.

Credit: NASA

Doctor of Medicine

He received his Doctor of Medicine from Stanford Medical School in 2009.

Credit: NASA

India

Dr. Menon spent a year in India as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to study and support Polio vaccination.

Credit: Twitter/@Roscosmos

NASA flight surgeon

In 2014, he joined NASA as a flight surgeon where he supported four long-duration crew members on the International Space Station as the deputy crew surgeon for Soyuz missions.

Credit: NASA

SpaceX

He had joined SpaceX in 2018 where he started its medical program and helped prepare for the company’s first human flights.

Credit: Twitter/ @astro_g_dogg

NASA astronaut

Menon was selected with nine others and will report for duty in January 2022 to begin two years of initial astronaut training for NASA’s future space mission.

Credit: NASA