NASA astronaut launches with 2 cosmonauts to space station
NASA astronaut Anil Menon launched with a pair of cosmonauts on a Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station on Tuesday.
Menon, a member of the 2021 class of astronauts, is making his first spaceflight. He's flying with Roscosmos' Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. Kikina flew once before on the Crew-5 mission that launched from Florida in 2022. Dubrov also flew to space once before spending nearly a year on the station from 2021-2022.
Their Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft lifted off at 10:47 a.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Docking is set for 1:56 p.m.
The trio are slated to spend about eight months on board the station. They will join the seven crew already on board as part of Expedition 74.
Menon is married to Anna Menon, a member the newest class of astronaut candidates, who actually already flew to space as a member of the private Polaris Dawn mission along with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman before he took on the role of leading the agency.
The two now are the 11th married couple that have traveled to space.
Both previously worked at SpaceX. Anil, who holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force is trained as an emergency medicine physician, and was the medical director at SpaceX before he was chosen as an astronaut for NASA.
Isaacman was in Kazakhstan to see Menon off.
"Anil, to you, few have ever worked harder in their life to chase their dreams. No one has earned this more. Godspeed my friend," he said.
The three crew from the previous Soyuz mission, including NASA's Chris Williams along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, will fly back to Earth once the new crew is settled in.
Remaining on board are the quartet from the Crew-12 mission: NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, Roscosmos' Andrey Fedyaev and the European Space Agency's Sophie Adenot.
That quartet won't return to Earth until after the arrival of the Crew-13 mission, which is targeting launch from Cape Canaveral no earlier than September 12.
Its crew includes Central Florida's Luke Delaney in the role of pilot making his debut spaceflight and fellow NASA astronaut and commander Jessica Watkins, who flew one before on Crew-4 to the station in 2022. Also on board will be Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, both making their first trips to space.
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This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 11:50 AM.