A NASA astronaut of Indian descent, Anil Menon is set to embark on an eight-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS) tomorrow from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan along with two Russian cosmonauts.
The Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft is scheduled for lift-off from the Baikonur spaceport at 8:17 PM Indian Standard Time and is expected to dock at the orbital laboratory after a little over three hours. Besides Menon, Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina will be part of the 75th expedition to the ISS. The Soyuz spacecraft will dock at the ISS at 11:56 PM IST tomorrow, and the astronauts will be onboard the ISS at around 1:25 am IST early Wednesday.
Born in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, 49-year-old Menon is an emergency medicine physician and a US Space Force colonel. During his stint with the US Air Force, he served on the frontlines in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and also worked for the Himalayan Rescue Association, caring for climbers on Mount Everest.
