Indian-origin physician Anil Menon, a lieutenant colonel at the US Air Force, has select by NASA with ten others to be astronauts for future missions, NASA has announce. Anil Menon, age 45, was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants.
Anil Menon was SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helping to launch the company’s first humans to space during NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission and building a medical organisation to support the human system during future missions.
NASA announce that it has chosen 10 new astronaut candidates from a field of more than 12,000 applicants to represent the US and work for humanity’s benefit in space.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson introduce the members of the 2021 astronaut class, the first new class in four years, 6th December 2021 event at Ellington Field near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Bill Nelson Said :
“Today we welcome 10 new explorers, 10 members of the Artemis generation, NASA’s 2021 astronaut candidate class,”.
“Alone, each candidate has ‘the right stuff,’ but together they represent the creed of our country: E pluribus unum out of many, one,”.
The astronaut candidates will report for duty at Johnson in January 2022 to begin two years of training.
Astronaut candidate training falls into five major categories :
- Operating and maintaining the International Space Station’s complex systems,
- Training for spacewalks,
- Developing complex robotics skills,
- Safely operating a T-38 training jet,
- Russian language skills.
After completion, they could be assign to missions that involve performing research aboard the space station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, as well as deep space missions to destinations including the Moon on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
Pam Melroy, former NASA astronaut and NASA’s deputy administrator, told the candidates :
“Each of you has amazing backgrounds,”
“You bring diversity in so many forms to our astronaut corps and you stepped up to one of the highest and most exciting forms of public service.”
Applicants included US citizens from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands.
NASA require candidates to hold a master’s degree in a STEM field and used an online assessment tool for the first time.
The women and men select for the new astronaut class represent the diversity of America and the career paths that can lead to a place in America’s astronaut corps.
Anil Menon previously serve NASA as the crew flight surgeon for various expeditions taking astronauts to the International Space Station.
Anil Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician with fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine.
As a physician, Anil Menon was a first responder during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and the 2011 Reno Air Show accident.
In the Air Force, Anil Menon support the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and the 173rd Fighter Wing, where Anil Menon logged over 100 sorties in the F-15 fighter jet and transported over 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team.
Aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla in July became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian citizen to travel in space.
The former Indian Air Force pilot flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.
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