Anna Menon: Flying Farther Than Any Woman In Space, SpaceX Astronaut Scripts History

The Polaris Dawn mission has scripted history becoming the first flight since NASA's Apollo program to fly farther from the earth and enabling the first private and commerical spacewalk. This SpaceX mission includes a lot of firsts including two women astronuats making history as well. Anna Menon, an engineer and astronaut and astronaut Sarah Gillis have flown further than any woman on Earth with this mission. 

The Polaris Dawn Mission

The Polaris Dawn mission was launched on September 10, paving way for the four-member crew to attain an altitude of 1,400 km (870 miles) above Earth. With this, they broke the last record set during NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966.

Polaris Dawn is go for launch pic.twitter.com/tx1gUyZjZr

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 10, 2024

Who Is Anna Menon?

At SpaceX, Menon implemented the crew capabilities of Dragon and helped in the creation of the crew communicator operator role, and developed critical operational responses to vehicle emergencies like a fire, amongst others. She has served in mission control during multiple cargo and crew Dragon missions, which include Demo-2, and Crew-1. CRS-22 and CRS-23.

Before joining SpaceX, she worked at NASA for seven years as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station. Anil Menon is a distinguished lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, an accomplished emergency medicine physician, and a NASA astronaut. With prior roles as a flight surgeon at NASA and the medical director at SpaceX, he was ultimately chosen as a candidate for astronaut training at NASA.

On Valentine's Day a few years back, Anil Menon posted a picture of his wedding day with his wife Anna in the frame. On Instagram, he wrote a long message on how proud he was of Anna for the achievement saying that she will be "one of SpaceX's first astronauts on Polaris Dawn."

"Our life stories are not about space and, instead, a love story where the set is space. The day after we met, we worked side by side in a @nasa simulation, and I knew it was meant to be. We were then lucky enough to work at @spacex in neighbouring cubicles. And now, I get to share a lifelong dream of flying to space," he wrote.

Anna shared a series of pictures, leading with the one with her current crew and wrote, "I'm excited to embark on a lifelong dream and groundbreaking space mission, which demonstrates the tremendous opportunity for women, mothers, and any human being who dreams of flying to space."

She also shared her story when she was 11-year-old and her teacher Alison Smith Balch took her on a field trip to Johnson Space Center of NASA. There she experienced "a day in the life of an astronaut and flight controller in Mission Control." The experience transformed her life and set her, a young girl, on the path of math and engineering.

Anna and Anil Menon are parents to two children.