Anna Menon (née Wilhelm; born December 24, 1985) is an American engineer employed by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

as lead space operations and a mission director. She flew on

Polaris Dawn Polaris Dawn was a Private spaceflight, private crewed spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman, the first of three planned missions in the Polaris program. Launched 10 September 2024 as the 14th crewed orbital flight ...

, a private human spaceflight mission operated by SpaceX on behalf of

Jared Isaacman Jared Taylor Isaacman (born February 11, 1983) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, pilot, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of Shift4, Shift4 Payments, a payment processor, and the founder of Draken Internati ...

. During the September 2024 mission, she served as the onboard medical officer and, along with Sarah Gillis, set the record for women traveling farthest from Earth. Menon previously worked as a biomedical flight controller at NASA for six years, overseeing operations at the International Space Station before joining SpaceX.

Education

Menon graduated from

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

in 2008 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. She went on to earn a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree in

biomedical engineering Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare applications (e.g., diagnostic or therapeutic purposes). BME also integrates the logica ...

from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

in 2010. Menon was also a member of the ''Iota Lambda chapter'' of

Alpha Chi Omega Alpha Chi Omega (, also known as Alpha Chi or A Chi O) is a national women's fraternity founded at DePauw University in 1885. As of 2023, it has more than 140 active collegiate and 170 active alumnae chapters in the United States and has initiat ...

sorority at Texas Christian University.

Career

NASA

Menon worked at NASA for seven years, and for six of those years she served as a biomedical flight controller for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

, assisting ISS crews from NASA's

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and leading

biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)

operations for

Expedition 41 Expedition 41 was the 41st expedition to the International Space Station. It began on 10 September 2014 with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-12M, returning the crew of Expedition 40 to Earth. The expedition ended with the undocking of Soyuz TMA-13M ...

including ISS US EVA's 27 and 28.

SpaceX

Menon joined SpaceX in July 2018 as a Space Operations Engineer. She was promoted to Lead Space Operations Engineer in November 2019. In her position, she manages the development of crew operations, ensuring that procedures and protocols are in place for astronauts during their missions. She also served in the company's mission control, including during the Demo-2 flight. During

Inspiration4 Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon Crew Dragon Resilience, ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02: ...

, a

private spaceflight Private spaceflight is any spaceflight development that is not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA. During the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pionee ...

funded by billionaire

, she served as technical adviser to the family members of the all-civilian crew, explaining the complexities of spaceflight. Shortly after Isaacman returned from space, he picked Menon to be part of his

mission. During the mission, Menon served as the on-board medical officer and helped carry out science experiments during the trip.

Personal life

Anna married NASA astronaut

Anil Menon Anil Menon is an Indian computer scientist and writer of speculative fiction. He has authored research papers and edited books on evolutionary algorithms. His research, in collaboration with Kishan Mehrotra, Chilukuri Mohan, and Sanjay Ranka, ...

on October 15, 2016, in a ceremony in Houston. They have two children together. Both she and her husband appeared in the final episode of the five-episode

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

entitled '' Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space'', released on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in September 2021.

Education

Career

NASA

SpaceX

Personal life

References

See also