This NASA astronaut has spent years shaping the future of spaceflight. Now he’s finally heading to orbit

# NASA Doctor Anil Menon Is Finally Going to Space After Years of Preparing Others After spending years as a NASA flight surgeon and SpaceX's medical director studying how space affects the human body, astronaut Anil Menon is launching to the International Space Station this July aboard a Russian spacecraft. His unique career—which also includes emergency room work and supporting his wife's own space mission—gives him an unusual insider perspective on how NASA, Russia, and private companies like SpaceX approach spaceflight differently. He'll spend eight months on the space station, continuing a decades-long tradition where the U.S. and Russia regularly exchange astronauts and cosmonauts on each other's missions.