NASA’s Anil Menon prepares for Expedition-75 set for June 2026

While ISRO's Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla continues his Axiom journey 4 (Ax-4), NASA astronaut Anil Menon prepares for his maiden mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Menon will serve as a flight engineer and Expedition 75 crew member on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, which is set to launch in June 2026.

He will be accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina for an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station, adding to India's increasing space footprint.

The trio will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Menon will undertake a variety of scientific experiments and technological demonstrations on board the station, Indian Express reported.

Menon was selected by NASA in 2021 and graduated with the 23rd astronaut class in 2024. Born and raised in Minneapolis, he brings an outstanding set of skills to the table. He is an emergency medicine physician, mechanical engineer, and a colonel in the United States Space Force.

Menon also has a bachelor's degree in neurobiology from Harvard University, a master's in mechanical engineering, and a medical degree from Stanford. He did residencies in emergency and aerospace medicine at Stanford and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.

Aside from space flights and experiments, Menon practices emergency medicine at Memorial Hermann's Texas Medical Centre and lectures at the University of Texas residency program.

He supported the historic NASA-SpaceX Demo-2 mission as SpaceX's first flight surgeon prior to joining NASA. He also worked on several ISS trips as a crew flight surgeon.

Currently slated to launch in June 2026, Expedition-75 is the 75th long-duration mission to the International Space Station. Enabling long-term space exploration and benefiting humans on Earth are the main goals of the ISS.

Expedition 75 will probably help with this by carrying out a number of studies and scientific investigations.