Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX, Menon manages development of crew operations and serves in mission control
Indian American SpaceX engineer Anna Menon will be among the crew of a unique space mission announced by US billionaire Jared Isaacman, who last year led the world’s first all-private space crew into orbit.
Menon is a Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX, where she manages the development of crew operations and serves in mission control as both a Mission Director and crew communicator, according to a SpaceX press release.
Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 who commanded the Inspiration4 mission, Monday described the Polaris Program as “a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes here on Earth.”
Read: Indian American Anil Menon chosen as NASA astronaut candidate (December 7, 2021)
The program will consist of up to three human spaceflight missions that will demonstrate new technologies, conduct extensive research, and ultimately culminate in the first flight of SpaceX’s Starship with humans on board.
The first mission, Polaris Dawn, is targeted to launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2022 from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This Dragon mission will take advantage of Falcon 9 and Dragon’s maximum performance, flying higher than any Dragon mission to date and endeavoring to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown.
Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew will spend up to five days in orbit, during which the crew will attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk, conduct scientific research designed to advance both human health on Earth and understanding of human health during future long-duration spaceflights.
It would also be the first crew to test Starlink laser-based communications in space, providing valuable data for future space communications systems necessary for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Read: Indian American astronaut Raja Chari reaches Space Station (November 12, 2021)
The Polaris Dawn mission has many first-time objectives, so the Polaris Program chose a crew of experts who know each other well and have a foundation of trust they can build upon as they undergo the challenges of this mission, SpaceX said.
In addition to Isaacman, the crew includes Scott “Kidd” Poteet, a veteran member of Jared’s team, and two SpaceX employees, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
During her tenure at SpaceX, Anna Menon has led the implementation of Dragon’s crew capabilities, helped create the crew communicator operator role, and developed critical operational responses to vehicle emergencies, such as a fire or cabin depressurization.
Menon served in mission control during multiple cargo and crew Dragon missions, including Demo-2, Crew-1, CRS-22, and CRS-23. Prior to SpaceX, she worked for seven years at NASA as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station.
Anna Menon is the spouse of SpaceX Medical Director Anil Menon, one of the ten folks chosen by NASA as astronauts for its upcoming missions.
“I’ve a decade of expertise working in area and astronaut operations, with service to each NASA and SpaceX,” she says in her LinkedIn profile. “I presently lead a group of sensible engineers, with whom I’m lucky to study, develop and innovate collectively in a joint effort to make life interplanetary.”
Read: SpaceX Astronaut Anna Menon Prepares To Embark On The Polaris Dawn Mission (February 15, 2022)
She has previously worked on the Wyle Built-in Science and Engineering Group. She was additionally a student researcher at Duke College and an analysis assistant on the Texas A&M College Continuum Biomechanics Laboratory.
Anna Menon studied Bachelor of Science in Arithmetic and Spanish from Texas Christian College and graduated in 2008. After graduating, she went to Duke College and took her Grasp of Science diploma in biomedical/medical expertise.