A most improbable astronaut just went to space

一位最不可能的宇航员刚刚进入了太空

Anil Menon, a NASA flight surgeon, felt crushed nine years ago as his hopes and aspirations collapsed around him. For the fourth time, he had diligently applied to become an astronaut at the US space agency, seeking to fulfill a lifelong dream. Although he made it to the final round, NASA had once again rejected his application at the end of the grueling process. 九年前，身为美国国家航空航天局（NASA）飞行外科医生的阿尼尔·梅农（Anil Menon）感到心灰意冷，他的希望和抱负在那一刻崩塌了。他曾第四次勤奋地申请成为该航天局的宇航员，试图实现毕生的梦想。尽管他进入了最后一轮选拔，但在经历了漫长而艰苦的流程后，NASA 还是再次拒绝了他的申请。

“I was so sad, and I admitted defeat,” Menon said. “I just did not see a pathway forward. So I pretty much, at that point in time, gave up on being an astronaut. I thought there was a zero percent chance.” “我当时非常难过，我承认自己失败了，”梅农说，“我实在看不到前进的道路。所以在那一刻，我基本上放弃了成为宇航员的念头。我觉得成功的几率是零。”

He was 39 years old. In 2017, Menon was already half a decade older than the average age of those selected to become astronaut candidates. He felt a door closing, and looking for a new one to open, devoted time to thinking deeply about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. 当时他 39 岁。在 2017 年，梅农的年龄已经比入选宇航员候选人的平均年龄大了五岁。他感到一扇门正在关闭，为了寻找另一扇开启的门，他花时间深入思考自己余生想要做什么。

His life was not without adventure up to that point—far from it. An emergency physician by training, Menon had practiced medicine on Mount Everest, provided relief in Port-au-Prince after a devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and flown search-and-rescue missions with the US military in Afghanistan. 在那之前，他的生活并非没有冒险——恰恰相反。作为一名受过专业训练的急诊医生，梅农曾在珠穆朗玛峰行医，在 2010 年海地发生毁灭性地震后在太子港提供救援，并曾随美军在阿富汗执行搜救任务。

As he considered what should come next, Menon journaled daily about his passions, purpose, and principles. Eventually, he settled on space medicine. If he could not go to space, he would help others do so. And collectively, humanity would advance. “I needed that to be crystal clear in my mind,” Menon said. It had to be, because Menon and his wife Anna were about to make some momentous decisions. Decisions that would ultimately culminate in not one of them, but both, going to space. 在思考下一步该做什么时，梅农每天都会写日记，记录自己的热情、目标和原则。最终，他决定投身于太空医学。如果他不能去太空，他就帮助别人去。这样一来，人类就能共同进步。“我需要让这一点在脑海中变得无比清晰，”梅农说。这至关重要，因为他和妻子安娜（Anna）即将做出一些重大的决定。这些决定最终不仅让他们中的一人，而是让他们两人都进入了太空。

Facing a difficult decision

面临艰难的抉择

After spending his childhood years in the Midwest, Menon studied at Harvard University (neurobiology) before attending Stanford University to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering and, in 2006, a medical degree. He worked as an emergency physician in Los Angeles. He also joined the Air National Guard, became a pilot, and worked as a physician on search-and-rescue helicopters in Afghanistan. 在经历了中西部的童年生活后，梅农在哈佛大学学习了神经生物学，随后进入斯坦福大学获得了机械工程学位，并于 2006 年获得了医学学位。他曾在洛杉矶担任急诊医生。他还加入了空军国民警卫队，成为了一名飞行员，并在阿富汗的搜救直升机上担任医生。

In 2014, he became a flight surgeon at NASA, helping train and support the launch of six astronauts on long-duration missions to the space station. All of these flights launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, as the Russian Soyuz vehicle offered the US space agency its only means of accessing orbit. 2014 年，他成为 NASA 的一名飞行外科医生，负责培训并支持六名宇航员执行前往空间站的长期任务。所有这些飞行任务都是从哈萨克斯坦的拜科努尔发射的，因为当时俄罗斯的“联盟号”飞船是美国航天局进入轨道的唯一途径。

Along the way, as he built his impressive resume, Menon continued applying to become an astronaut to no avail. After his fourth rejection and some extended soul-searching, Menon saw an opportunity at SpaceX. The company was preparing for the first human mission on the Crew Dragon spacecraft and needed a physician to help. He was intrigued by the new space company and saw an opportunity to help build the future of spaceflight. 在积累了令人印象深刻的履历的同时，梅农继续申请成为宇航员，但都无功而返。在第四次被拒并经过长时间的自我反思后，梅农在 SpaceX 看到了一次机会。该公司当时正在筹备“载人龙飞船”（Crew Dragon）的首次载人任务，需要一名医生提供协助。这家新兴的航天公司引起了他的兴趣，他看到了一个助力构建太空飞行未来的机会。

Upon being offered the job, Menon faced a difficult decision. He had a great job at NASA and multiple appointments to Houston-area emergency rooms. He and Anna had started a family, putting down roots in Houston. She also had a promising career as a flight controller at Johnson Space Center, working for the space station program. 在获得这份工作邀请后，梅农面临着艰难的抉择。他在 NASA 有一份很棒的工作，并在休斯顿地区的多个急诊室担任职务。他和安娜已经组建了家庭，在休斯顿扎下了根。安娜在约翰逊航天中心担任飞行控制员，为空间站项目工作，事业前景广阔。

“Going to SpaceX was a big gamble for us, and for our family,” Anil Menon said. Starting the new position in April 2018, Menon threw himself into the new job. His boss, Lee Rosen, said the company wasn’t sure what it needed from a flight surgeon, so he urged Menon to be “entrepreneurial.” He did just that, working with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to ensure a safe ride in and recovery from the Dragon spacecraft during the Demo-2 mission. “去 SpaceX 对我们和我们的家庭来说是一场巨大的赌博，”阿尼尔·梅农说。2018 年 4 月入职后，梅农全身心地投入到了新工作中。他的老板李·罗森（Lee Rosen）表示，公司当时并不确定需要飞行外科医生做什么，因此他鼓励梅农要具有“创业精神”。他确实做到了，他与 NASA 宇航员道格·赫尔利（Doug Hurley）和鲍勃·本肯（Bob Behnken）合作，确保了“Demo-2”任务期间龙飞船的飞行安全及回收工作。

Once in California, Anna soon landed a job helping to manage crew operations at SpaceX. They settled into their new lives and thrived. “I think that’s one of my life takeaways—that sometimes it’s worth the risk to gamble on what you’re really passionate about, because it leads to some exciting opportunities,” Anil Menon said. “And so we did it. We both moved out there to California, and it was transformative.” 搬到加州后，安娜很快在 SpaceX 找到了一份管理机组运营的工作。他们适应了新的生活并蓬勃发展。“我认为这是我的人生感悟之一——有时为了你真正热爱的事物去冒险是值得的，因为它会带来一些令人兴奋的机会，”阿尼尔·梅农说，“所以我们做了。我们俩都搬到了加州，那是一次改变人生的经历。”

In early 2020, the workload for Demo-2 was approaching its most crucial phase as NASA sought final paperwork and other tests to ensure the readiness of Dragon to safely fly astronauts into space. It was at this critical moment that the COVID-19 pandemic struck. 2020 年初，“Demo-2”任务的工作量进入了最关键的阶段，NASA 正在寻求最终的文书工作和其他测试，以确保龙飞船能够安全地将宇航员送入太空。就在这个关键时刻，新冠疫情爆发了。

A pandemic and Demo-2

疫情与“Demo-2”任务

Six years later, Menon still remembers the company-wide email sent by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disease was happening, she said. SpaceX was going to be safe, but it was also going to execute its mission. She added that SpaceX had its own flight surgeon working on the third floor of the factory in Hawthorne, California. She gave his name, number, and email address if anyone had questions. They did. 六年后的今天，梅农依然记得新冠疫情初期 SpaceX 总裁格温·肖特韦尔（Gwynne Shotwell）发送的那封全公司邮件。她说，疫情正在发生。SpaceX 会确保安全，但也会继续执行任务。她补充说，SpaceX 有自己的飞行外科医生在加州霍桑工厂的三楼工作。她给出了他的名字、电话和电子邮件地址，以备有人有疑问。确实有人有疑问。

“As you can imagine, in a company of 10,000 people, my email inbox exploded all of a sudden,” Menon said. “你可以想象，在一家拥有 1 万名员工的公司里，我的收件箱突然就爆满了，”梅农说。

Menon’s job expanded. He now had to not only superintend the flight health aspects of Demo-2 but also help lead SpaceX’s internal response to the pandemic. Menon embarked on several activities, including antibody testing to track the spread of the disease. This led to a collaboration with Harvard and two publications in Nature journals. SpaceX also built 4,000 solenoids for Medtronic ventilators, and volunteers manufactured 55,000 masks for Los Angeles-area emergency departments. 梅农的工作范围扩大了。他现在不仅要监管“Demo-2”任务的飞行健康方面，还要协助领导 SpaceX 内部的防疫工作。梅农开展了多项活动，包括通过抗体检测来追踪疾病的传播。这促成了与哈佛大学的合作，并在《自然》杂志上发表了两篇论文。SpaceX 还为美敦力（Medtronic）呼吸机制造了 4000 个电磁阀，志愿者们为洛杉矶地区的急诊部门制造了 5.5 万个口罩。

Then, in May 2020, SpaceX and NASA launched the Demo-2 mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida amid the height of the pandemic. Menon was there with the crew during their last minutes on Earth, and among the first to greet them after they splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. 随后，在 2020 年 5 月，正值疫情高峰期，SpaceX 和 NASA 从佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心发射了“Demo-2”任务。梅农在机组人员离开地球前的最后几分钟一直陪伴着他们，并在他们于墨西哥湾溅落后，成为第一批迎接他们的人之一。

Menon, left, escorts NASA Astronaut Doug Hurley shortly after the Demo-2 mission landed in 2020. Credit: NASA 梅农（左）在 2020 年“Demo-2”任务着陆后不久护送 NASA 宇航员道格·赫尔利。图片来源：NASA

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