On September 22, 2023, NASA unveiled its latest astronaut class, consisting of ten exceptional candidates, including five men and five women. This new class is poised to train for potential missions to commercial space stations in low Earth orbit, as well as future expeditions to the Moon and possibly Mars. Among the selected candidates is Anna Menon, who brings a wealth of experience to the table, having already completed a spaceflight.
Anna Menon notably participated in the Polaris Dawn mission, which launched in September 2024 aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule named Resilience. This groundbreaking mission, the first in the ambitious Polaris Program, was funded and organized by billionaire tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who also commanded the flight. Alongside Menon were pilot Scott Kidd Poteet and fellow mission specialists, including Sarah Gillis, both engineers from SpaceX.
The Polaris Dawn mission made history by achieving a maximum altitude of 870 miles (1,400.7 kilometers), marking the farthest distance from Earth reached by any crewed spaceflight since the Apollo era. Notably, Gillis and Menon set records for women, flying higher than any female astronaut has ever done. Additionally, Polaris Dawn featured the first-ever private spacewalk, where all four crew members were exposed to the vacuum of space, allowing Isaacman and Gillis to enjoy breathtaking views of Earth from above.
During the astronaut announcement ceremony held at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Menon chose to focus on her impressive academic background rather than her spaceflight experience. She holds a master's degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University. Menon shared her early career experience as a biomedical flight controller at NASA, where her role involved supporting medical hardware and software on the International Space Station. She expressed her excitement about returning to NASA and the prospects of advancing space medicine.
“As more and more people venture into space, and we seek to go further than ever before, we have this awesome opportunity to learn a tremendous amount to help support those astronauts and those people that are flying in those adventures and help keep them healthy and safe," Menon stated. Her enthusiasm for the future of space medicine is palpable, as she believes there is much to discover regarding human health in zero gravity environments.
Menon is part of the 2025 NASA astronaut candidate class, the 24th in the agency's history and the first since 2021. Her fellow candidates include Ben Bailey, Lauren Edgar, Adam Fuhrmann, Cameron Jones, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, Imelda Muller, Erin Overcash, and Katherine Spies. These ten candidates will undergo rigorous training over the next two years, preparing them for a range of potential missions, including opportunities to participate in NASA's Artemis program and possibly even be among the first astronauts to set foot on Mars.
It's worth noting that Anna Menon is not the first astronaut to have flown before being selected for a NASA astronaut class. Several astronauts from the shuttle era, such as Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri, Canada's Steven MacLean, and Italy's Umberto Guidoni, have all completed missions before their selection in NASA's Group 16 astronaut class in 1996.
The recent announcement of the 2025 astronaut candidates marks a significant milestone for NASA as it continues to push the boundaries of space exploration. As we await further developments, the excitement surrounding these candidates, particularly Menon, highlights the future of human spaceflight and the vital role of space medicine in upcoming missions.
