Anna Menon

Anna “Walker” Menon served as Mission Specialist & Medical Officer for Polaris Dawn. She perviously worked as a Lead Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX, managing crew operations and serving in mission control as a Mission Director and crew communicator. She led the development of Dragon’s crew capabilities and supported missions like Demo-2, Crew-1, and Axiom-1. Before SpaceX, Anna worked seven years at NASA as a biomedical flight controller for the International Space Station, leading biomedical operations for Expedition 47/48. With degrees in Mathematics and Spanish from Texas Christian University and Biomedical Engineering from Duke, she has also aided global health efforts, including post-earthquake response in Nepal. Her passion for space was sparked by her fourth-grade teacher, Alison Smith Balch, daughter of Challenger pilot Michael J. Smith. Anna enjoys hiking, flying small planes, and salsa dancing with her family—husband Anil and children James and Grace. During her time in space, she read the book she co-authored, Kisses from Space, to her family and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital patients. Alongside Sarah Gillis, she set the record for farthest distanced any woman has traveled from Earth. On September 22, 2025, NASA announced its 2025 class of astronaut candidates, including Anna. She reported to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for training.