On 6 March (as per Indian Standard Time), NASA Johnson Space Center Director Dr Vanessa Wyche announced the details of their latest astronaut candidate graduation ceremony. 

Out of a total pool of 12,000 applicants, 12 new astronauts have successfully graduated from their rigorous training program and earned their astronaut wings. Out of these 12 hand-picked astronauts, only one of them is of Indian origin. He is Lt Col Dr Anil Menon and he is a man of Malayali origin. 

These newly appointed NASA astronauts are now eligible to fly to the Moon, Mars and International Space Station. 

This writer had a brief interview through an email exchange with the newly appointed astronaut. 

When asked about his roots in Kerala, Dr Menon says: “I am proud to be from Kerala.  My father is from there and he lives in India now.”

When asked about newly appointed ISRO astronauts and his plans to visit Kerala, he remarks enthusiastically: “I am also looking forward to working with India’s newest astronauts, one of whom is from Kerala very close to where my father is from. I look forward to visiting soon. I would love to say hello to folks in Kerala and yes, [new ISRO astronaut] Prasanth, is from the same district.”

About his Kerala family ancestry, he mentions his stellar lineage: “My grandfather M Gopal Menon was in the ICS in Kerala and my uncle K P Candeth was a general in the Indian Army. Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair was one of my grandfathers, generations back.” 

He is excited to communicate this latest astronaut graduation news to the people of Kerala. He adds: “I speak a little Malayalam but need to brush up. I’ll put something in my Instagram post in Malayalam soon!”

About his brief biography and other interests, Manorama has covered his story when he joined astronaut training a couple of years back. 

It was on the eve of this year’s National Science Day, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded astronaut wings to 4 newly trained Indian astronauts of ISRO. One of them is a Malayali as well. The story of Gp Capt Prashanth Nair was widely covered by Kerala media. 

By some sheer coincidence, both the first Malayali NASA astronaut and the first Malayali ISRO astronaut have their origins in remote villages of Palakkad district. 

It would be interesting to see who is going to fly to space first. Either way, they are going to clock their space miles soon and become the eternal pride of the Malayali community both globally and celestially! 

A few months back when the author met Wg Cdr Rakesh Sharma (the very first Indian to fly to space) at Ooty, he said his message for the younger generation is: “Compete Less and Collaborate More.” 

Rakesh Sharma recollects that: “While flying to space, borders and boundaries slowly vanish and we all have one single address, Mother Earth.”

From their words to the media, it is evident that these new young astronauts plan to follow this mantra of collaboration for the benefit of space exploration and greater humanity at large on our “pale blue dot” as Carl Sagan liked to call it. 

(The author, Dr Aswin Sekhar, is a Malayali astrophysicist, science writer and science outreach professional)