Anil Menon is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, emergency medicine physician and NASA astronaut.

[citation needed] Anil Menon was transferred to the 173rd Fighter Wing for military duty and pursued a residency in aerospace medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he published his thesis on medical kits for commercial spaceflight.

He later transferred to the Air Force reserves, 45th operational group, Detachment 3 of the 45th Space Wing to provide medical direction for launch and landings.

In the Air Force, Menon supported the 45th Space Wing as a flight surgeon and the 173rd Fighter Wing, where he logged over 100 sorties in the F-15 fighter jet and transported over 100 patients as part of the critical care air transport team.

[7] Both he and his wife appeared in the final episode of the five-episode television documentary entitled Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, released on Netflix in September 2021.