Mama, when are YOU going to be an astronaut?

Space is in the family

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Work for the Menon family is all about space. Anil and Anna Menon have both worked at NASA and then at SpaceX. He was a flight surgeon, she is a biomedical engineer working with astronaut crews. Both of them were inspired by space early in their lives and harbored the dream of riding a rocket beyond the atmosphere.

DADDY BECOMES AN ASTRONAUT

Last December, Anil got his chance. He was selected as a NASA Astronaut Candidate. He recounts getting the call from the Chief of NASA’s Astronaut Office. Anil was asked a work question about the SpaceX Dragon capsule he was working on. He didn’t think the call was “the one” about astronaut selection. Then, the Chief surprised Anil with an invitation to rejoin the agency as an astronaut.

Anil and Anna Menon and their two children (Credit: Instsgram- annawmenon)

His wife Anna walked into the room during the call and, “she sees the expression on my face and she puts it altogether right away, and she just bursts into tears because she knew what a dream it was of mine to be able to do that.”

Anil Menon explains getting the call from NASA offering him a spot in the Astronaut Class of 2021. (Credit: NASA)

What wonderful news to share with their two young children. Anna says, “We had just told our four year old son that Daddy was going to be an astronaut. And our son's first response was, ‘Mama, when are you going to be an astronaut?’”

Anil Menon introduced as an Astronaut Candidate and asked about medical research in space. (Credit: NASA)

Little did the family know that in a matter of weeks, Anna Menon would be asked join a space faring crew of her own.

BIOMEDICAL FLIGHT CONTROLLER

Anna spent seven years at NASA as a biomedical flight controller for crews on the International Space Station (ISS). When she moved over to SpaceX, she was deeply involved with the development of the company’s Dragon spacecraft, which has now carried several NASA crews to the ISS. In her role, she was also involved in the first private orbiting mission on a Dragon called Inspiration 4.

Anna Menon, Mission Specialist for the Polaris Dawn mission. (Credit: Polaris Program)

It was billionaire Jared Isaacman who funded and commanded the Inspiration 4 mission. Anna Menon, as a flight director and crew communicator, was intimately involved in that mission. Isaacman wasn’t done. He has now committed to up to three more missions with SpaceX.

THE MEETING

“I got called into a meeting with Jared to discuss our past work together as well as some future work,” Anna told reporters during a briefing call for the new Isaacman effort called the Polaris Program.

Full crew for Polaris Dawn. Jared Isaacman is second from right. (Credit: Polaris Program)

“During the course of that conversation, he suddenly asked me, ‘how would you like to go on this next mission with me?’ I was shocked, surprised, humbled, incredibly honored and excited.”

This time it was Anna’s turn to go home and tell the family. She accepted the invitation and is now a mission specialist on the crew of four on the Polaris Dawn mission. “Here I am today just really excited and humbled to be a part of this mission and everything it’s hoping to accomplish,” Anna said.

FINDING A PATH THROUGH STEM

On Instagram, Anna told the story of her inspiration to go to space. As an 11-year-old girl, her teacher (the daughter of a Space Shuttle pilot) took Anna to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to experience a day in the life of a flight controller. “That experience transformed my life and set me on a path to learn about math and engineering as a little girl,” she wrote. Menon knows her path into STEM education is unusual which is why she hopes her mission is inspiring to others, “to experience new pathways in math, science, and space.”

At this point, the answer to Menon’s son’s question is that Mama may travel to space before Daddy. The Polaris Dawn mission could fly near the end of this year.

Who says dreams don’t come true? It’s the family business.

(Credit: Instagram- annawmenon)

(Cover photo credit: Anil Menon-Facebook)