Indian-origin NASA astronaut Anil Menon completes historic first spacewalk at ISS

Anil Menon floated outside the International Space Station on August 6, stepping into the vacuum of space for the first time in his career. The Minneapolis-born astronaut, whose family comes from Palakkad in Kerala, was tethered to the orbiting laboratory as it traveled at roughly 17,500 miles per hour around Earth. He was not alone. Jessica Meir, a veteran NASA astronaut completing her sixth spacewalk, worked alongside him. Meir wore the suit marked with red stripes—the designation for crew member 1. Menon's suit bore no stripe. He was crew member 2, the newcomer to this particular frontier.

The mission had a specific purpose, one that would have seemed mundane if it were not happening 250 miles above the planet's surface. Menon and Meir were there to prepare the station for an upgrade to its power systems. The International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, known as IROSA, would be installed later in the year, and the two astronauts were laying the groundwork—performing the critical modifications and upgrades that would allow the new arrays to function once they arrived. The ISS depends on electricity generated by its solar panels to run everything from life-support systems to scientific instruments. Without power, the station is inert. The work Menon and Meir were doing outside, in the hard vacuum, was essential to keeping the laboratory alive.

Menon's background traces through immigration and American life. His parents came from India and Ukraine. He grew up in Minneapolis, far from any ocean, farther still from space. Yet here he was, designated as a NASA astronaut, selected for one of the most demanding jobs humans have ever performed. US Spacewalk 96, as the mission was officially numbered, was his entry into a small and particular club. It was also the 281st spacewalk conducted in support of the International Space Station since the project began—a measure of how many times humans have had to leave the safety of a spacecraft to keep this orbiting laboratory functioning.

The work was part of a larger sequence. Two more spacewalks were scheduled for later in August. On August 13, astronauts would replace a communications antenna, the kind that transmits high-speed data between Mission Control in Houston and the station. On August 25, a third team would connect power cables, upgrade data relay systems, and replace a navigation aid that helps visiting spacecraft dock safely at the Harmony module. Each spacewalk was a separate mission, each with its own risks and requirements. But together, they formed a coordinated campaign to maintain and upgrade the station's critical systems.

Menon's first spacewalk was historic in the way that many professional milestones are historic—not because it was unprecedented in the abstract, but because it marked a particular person reaching a particular achievement. Videos of the mission circulated across social media almost immediately, watched by people who had never thought much about the International Space Station or spacewalks before. For those watching, Menon's presence outside the station carried a different weight. He was Indian-origin, born to immigrant parents, now floating in the black, tethered to humanity's shared laboratory in orbit. The fact of his presence there, doing the work that needed doing, said something about who gets to reach for space and what it means when they do.