Anna Menon is an American astronaut and chief space operations engineer for SpaceX. She was selected as a crew member of the 2022 space mission Polaris Dawn on February 14, 2022.
Wiki/Biography
Anna Wilhelm Menon is from Houston, Texas.
Screenshot of Anna Menon’s Instagram profile
She first dreamed of flying into space in fourth grade, when her teacher Allison Smith Balch (the daughter of Space Shuttle Challenger pilot Michael J. Smith) took her to NASA’s Johnson Space center. At the space center, Anna experienced a day in the life of an astronaut and flight controller at Mission Control, which fascinated her.
Anna Menon’s childhood photos at NASA’s Johnson Space Center
After earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and Spanish from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, she pursued a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University in North Carolina.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 5″
Hair color: medium blonde
Eye color: light brown
family
Parents and siblings
Anna Menon’s father is Chandler William and her mother is Laura William.
Anna Menon and her father
Anna Menon and her mother
She has two siblings, an older sister, Rachel Wilhelm, and a younger brother, Alex Wilhelm.
Anna Menon and her sister Rachel William
Anna Menon and her brother Alex William
husband and children
She married Indian-American physician Anil Menon on October 15, 2016 at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 5501 Main St at Houston, TX 77004. Anil is a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, emergency medicine physician and medical doctor. NASA astronaut candidate. Anil was born in Minnesota, USA, to a Ukrainian mother and an Indian father. They have a son named James Menon (born in 2018) and a daughter named Grace Elizabeth Menon (born in 2020).
Anna Menon with her husband and children
Relationships/Affairs
Anna Wilhelm met Anil Menon at a mutual friend’s party in 2013 and they sang on Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me” Dance together in Maybe. At the party, Anil put his arm around Anna during an interview with the media, a move that surprised Anna. At the time, they were working together at NASA. As a result, after three dates, Anil proposed to Anna at Lucie Peveto’s art gallery.
Anil and Anna fly on SpaceX mission together
Profession
NASA
Before joining SpaceX, she served as a biomedical flight controller at NASA for seven years. At NASA, she assisted the space station staff in Mission Control, helped integrate international partner engineers and medical care, and led the planning and execution of all biomedical operations for Expedition 47/48.
space exploration technologies corp.
In addition to serving as mission director, the engineer also serves as crew communicator for SpaceX. She has managed the development of crew operations and held mission control roles at SpaceX. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation service provider founded by technology billionaire Elon Musk. At SpaceX, Menon led the implementation of Dragon crew capabilities and helped develop the Crew Communications Operator role. The Dragon capsule developed by SpaceX is known for its ability to return large amounts of cargo to Earth and is the first private spacecraft to carry humans to the space station. She also develops operational responses to vehicle emergencies, such as fires and cabin depressurization, a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the spacecraft to create a safe and comfortable environment for the crew at high altitude. She has served in mission control roles on multiple Dragon cargo and crew missions, including Demo-2 and Crew-1. CRS-22 and CRS-23. On February 14, 2022, she was selected to serve as a crew member on the Polaris Dawn space mission, a planned private manned space mission operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The manned space flight is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, in the fourth quarter of 2022. During space flights, she served as a medical officer and mission specialist. In addition to Jared Isaacman and Anna Menon, the crew includes American pilot Scott Poteet and American astronaut Sarah Gillis.
(Left to right) Polaris Dawn crew – Jared Isaacman, Anna Menon, Sarah Gillis and Scott Poteet
Facts/Trivia
- In her free time, Anna enjoys hiking, flying small planes, and salsa dancing.
- She appeared in the 2021 American five-part documentary series Countdown: Inspiration 4 Space Mission, which has been released and streamed on Netflix.
Countdown to: Inspiration 4 Space Mission (2021)
- During the 2015 Nepal earthquake, she actively cooperated with the World Health Organization (WHO) in its water and sanitation response efforts. She has also worked as a volunteer with the non-governmental organizations Engineers Without Borders and Engineering World Health.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education