A Doctor, an Engineer, and a Space Force Colonel — He’s Blasting Off Tomorrow!
Quick Summary
NASA astronaut Anil Menon is launching to the International Space Station tomorrow, Tuesday July 14. He is riding aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with two Russian cosmonauts. This will be his very first trip to space!
What Happened?
NASA astronaut Anil Menon is suiting up for the biggest adventure of his life. He will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:47 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday.
He is joined by Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. Together, the three-person crew will ride the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft to the space station.
The journey takes just three hours. That is about as long as watching two movies back to back! The spacecraft will make two full laps around Earth before catching up to the station and docking automatically.
Once aboard, Menon and his crewmates will join seven other astronauts and cosmonauts already living on the station. The whole team will become part of Expedition 74. Menon plans to spend about eight months in space, returning to Earth in April 2027.
Anil Menon is one of the most interesting people ever to go to space. He is a medical doctor who still practices emergency medicine. He is also a mechanical engineer. And he is a colonel in the United States Space Force. He grew up in Minneapolis and was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021.
While on the station, Menon will run experiments to grow special crystals used in powerful computers and medical devices. He will also test new ways to do medical checkups using augmented reality — like giving someone a check-up using smart glasses! He will study how the human body changes in space, too.
Why Does It Matter?
The International Space Station has had people living on it nonstop for more than 25 years. That is longer than most kids reading this have been alive!
The station is like a flying science laboratory the size of a football field. Scientists there run experiments that can only be done without gravity. What they learn helps protect future astronauts going to the Moon and Mars.
Menon’s mission is also a reminder that space exploration is a team effort. Americans and Russians work side by side on the station, even when their countries disagree about things on Earth.
Big Words
- Cosmonaut — The Russian word for astronaut; a person trained in Russia to travel to space.
- Soyuz — A Russian spacecraft that has safely carried crews to space since 1967; the name means “union” in Russian.
- Baikonur Cosmodrome — A famous rocket launch site in Kazakhstan that has been sending spacecraft to space longer than anywhere else on Earth.
- Expedition — A long journey or mission; on the ISS, each new crew period gets a number, like Expedition 74.
- Microgravity — The very weak gravity felt inside a spacecraft in orbit, which makes everything float.
Fun Fact
The Soyuz spacecraft has been flying since 1967 — over 50 years! It is one of the most reliable spacecraft ever built. Astronauts still ride it today because it has proven safe on hundreds of missions.
Think About It
Anil Menon is a doctor AND an engineer AND a military officer — all at once. If you were going to live on a space station for eight months, what skills do you think would be most important to bring with you?
Sources
- NASA — NASA Sets Coverage for Astronaut Anil Menon Launch to Space Station
- NASA — Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 mission page
- Starlust — Roscosmos to launch Soyuz MS-29 with crew of three to ISS on July 14