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Anil Menon graduates as NASA astronaut

Menon is the only Indian-American who has been selected as an astronaut among the ten other candidates.

Anil Menon in the center with other nine graduates / Image: NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recent class of graduates includes Indian-origin astronaut Anil Menon, who graduated after completing two years of rigorous training. 

Menon was previously SpaceX’s first flight surgeon, helping to launch the first humans into space during the Demo-2 mission and building a medical organization to support the human system during future missions. 

Prior to that, he served at NASA as the crew flight surgeon for various expeditions on the international space station. 

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician with fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine. 

Selected for training in 2021, astronaut graduates were chosen from a pool of more than 12,000 applicants and completed more than two years of required basic training, including spacewalking, robotics, space station systems, and more. They will now be eligible for flight assignments, according to a statement.

The graduates may be assigned to missions destined for the International Space Station, future commercial space stations, and Artemis campaign missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars.

“Congratulations to NASA and the astronaut graduates,” said Kiran Ahuja, director of the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

“By partnering with OPM, NASA employed an automated and streamlined hiring process to screen applicants for these prestigious roles. OPM is thrilled to continue supporting NASA experts to design and implement their hiring methods,” she further mentioned.
 

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