NASA Astronaut Anil Menon Prepares for Russian Soyuz MS-29 Launch
From left to right: NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian cosmonauts Anna Kikina and Pyotr Dubrov carrying their custom-fit Soyuz spacesuits at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
NASA astronaut Anil Menon in Soyuz spacesuit at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
From left to right: NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina
From left to right: Russian cosmonauts Anna Kikina and Pyotr Dubrov, along with NASA astronaut Anil Menon.
Anil Menon commented: "The Soyuz program traces its lineage to the first human spaceflight. Part of flying on the Soyuz includes joining that tradition . . . We participated in that tradition and visited Red Square to lay flowers on the memorials of Yuri Gagarin, Sergey Korolev, and other cosmonauts."
From left to right: NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina
Anil Menon commented: "The Soyuz program traces its lineage to the first human spaceflight. Part of flying on the Soyuz includes joining that tradition . . . We participated in that tradition and visited Red Square to lay flowers on the memorials of Yuri Gagarin, Sergey Korolev, and other cosmonauts."
From left to right: NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina
From left to right: Russian cosmonauts Anna Kikina and Pyotr Dubrov, along with NASA astronaut Anil Menon in final training at the Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research and Testing Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, near Moscow.
From left to right: NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina attending a press conference at the Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research and Testing Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, near Moscow.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft with Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. The trio will spend about eight months aboard the orbiting laboratory before returning to Earth in spring 2027.
During his expedition, Menon will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations intended to help humans prepare for future exploration missions to the Moon and Mars, and to provide benefits on Earth. Among the hundreds of experiments planned during his mission, he will participate in studies to better understand astronaut vein structure, blood flow, and blood composition in microgravity. He also will test producing intravenous fluids using the space station’s potable water.
The Soyuz MS-29 mission will be his first spaceflight after he was selected as part of NASA’s 2021 astronaut class. A native of Minneapolis, Menon is an emergency medicine physician, mechanical engineer, and colonel in the United States Space Force. He also has served as an expedition flight surgeon supporting the agency’s crew members aboard the space station.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon's Official Biography:
For more than 25 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station helps NASA understand and overcome the challenges of human spaceflight, expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit, and build on the foundation for long-duration missions to the Moon, as part of the Artemis program, and to Mars.
To learn more about International Space Station research, operations, and its crews, visit:
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Release Dates: June 23-July 1, 2026
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