Training is underway for NASA’s newest class of astronaut candidates at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. The nearly two-year long process began this past September for the four men and six women of Astronaut Group 24.
One of those ‘ASCAN’s, as they’re known, is Anna Menon, who previously flew on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission to space. She sat down with NASASpaceflight.com for an interview during her training.
“I pinched myself when I found out that I got to join this class and get to return to the team here at NASA,” Menon said of her selection to the astronaut corps.
Prior to her selection, Menon spent seven years as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station (ISS) program at NASA. This included leading biomed operations for the Expedition 47/48 crew in 2016 and overseeing astronaut health during two spacewalks.
“It’s been great having that perspective and bringing that into the work we do now,” Menon said when asked how that background helps her as an astronaut. “I’ve loved being able to see the flight controllers that are now keeping the space station running from the ground and getting to bring all of that background into this new line of work.”
Astronaut health has been in the spotlight recently with the early return of Crew-11 astronauts due to medical reasons. Given her role in monitoring crewmembers on long-duration missions, she says we’ve come a long way in regard to understanding the human body’s reaction to those extended space missions.
“There is a lot that goes into keeping a human healthy and happy and effectively working in that austere environment,” Menon noted. “There has been a lot learned, but there’s still a lot more to learn, and that kind of points to the value of all of the research that’s going on. There’s a lot that is still to be understood and so the research that’s happening on the International Space Station and then that it is to occur on other flights in the future are all contributing to that body of knowledge to help humans live better in this environment and go further than ever before.”
Menon is the first person selected to become a NASA astronaut after already earning their commercial astronaut wings. She previously worked to help develop Dragon crew capabilities for SpaceX where she also served as Crew Operations and Resource Engineer (CORE), communicating with crewmembers in space on behalf of flight controllers at SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California.
Astronauts Sarah Gillis (L) and Anna Menon (R) inside Dragon during the Polaris Dawn mission. (Credit: Anna Menon via X)
She would then go on to fly as part of the Polaris Dawn crew, which included commander and now-NASA administrator Jared Isaacman. She says her spaceflight experience from that mission is not going to replace her current astronaut training.
“I would just say that everything’s been additive,” Menon said. “I think that I was really grateful to learn the technical systems of the Dragon spacecraft, to learn how to live and work effectively in the mission that I had the chance to fly, and I think there’s a lot more to learn and to be able to do the missions that NASA has set out for the team here.”
When asked if she could use that experience to skip any training, she responded very quickly.
“Absolutely not, and I shouldn’t,” Menon said. “I have a lot to learn and there is a fantastic team of experts here at NASA that I’m really excited to learn from.”
There is certainly lots to learn over the course of her candidacy.
“These two years involve everything from preparing to do spacewalks using that big pool here at Johnson Space Center, flying in jets to learn crew resource management, technical systems including the technical systems of the International Space Station, robotics training, and all sorts of other things to really give us this kind of breadth of foundation so that we can be deployed wherever NASA needs ultimately,” Menon said of the training she must complete before becoming an official astronaut and therefore eligible to be assigned to a spaceflight.
The ten astronauts selected as part of NASA’s 24th Astronaut Class. (Credit: Josh Valcarcel – NASA – JSC)
While much of the focus is on the ISS, the orbiting laboratory is set to be deorbited in the next five years. Given this astronaut group still has another year and a half of training, the chances of flying to the station are getting fewer. However, Menon is prepared.
“My goal is to serve my country and serve NASA in the best of my abilities, and so whatever I am asked to do, I will gladly do,” Menon said. “And I want to do it to the best of my ability, so right now, that means learning, working hard, studying hard, and training to be ready to be assigned to whatever mission NASA needs.”
When asked about her takeaways from both supporting missions on the ground and flying aboard Polaris Dawn, she says one of the most important things she’s taking with her over to NASA is the importance of communication between space and ground teams.
“I remember being in space and feeling so grateful for that bridge, for the person that was helping to connect our team in space to the team on the ground, and then imagining that whole army of people supporting us and making sure that we were safe and that every technical objective could be executed safely and well,” Menon recalled. “And so really, it’s that person can serve as kind of that connection between these two teams as they serve to try to execute the group objectives.”
When asked if she had any advice for anybody who wanted to follow in her footsteps and become an astronaut, she says to shoot for your dreams.
“I think that this was my dream from a very young age and it was something that I didn’t know if it would be possible, but I pursued the things that I loved and that I had a passion for and that I felt I was good at,” Menon said happily.
“And I think that would be my piece of advice for someone that is interested in going into the space industry or really whatever they are seeking to do is to pay attention to what you love and what you are good at and pursue that with a vengeance because what I have found is that when you do that, things tend to fall into place. You tend to be most productive and fulfilled and able to contribute to the world around you in wherever life leads you.”
(Lead image: Anna Menon at a media event prior to the launch of Polaris Dawn. Credit: Max Evans for NSF)
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