2026年7月14日 / 美国东部时间下午12:26 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
医生出身的宇航员阿尼尔·梅农曾先后任职于NASA和太空探索技术公司（SpaceX），后与妻子安娜一同重新加入NASA成为宇航员。他于周二与两名俄罗斯宇航员搭乘火箭升空，将在国际空间站驻留8个月。
联盟MS-29/75S指令官彼得·杜布罗夫左侧为宇航员安娜·基基娜，右侧为梅农，三人于美国东部时间上午10:47从哈萨克斯坦拜科努尔航天发射场升空。
在顺利入轨8分46秒后，联盟号飞船与轨道上的大型空间站复合体完成了两次轨道机动后的对接准备。
一枚俄罗斯联盟号火箭从哈萨克斯坦拜科努尔航天发射场升空，搭载两名资深宇航员和一名NASA新手前往国际空间站。NASA/俄罗斯航天集团（Roscosmos）
尽管梅农是太空新手，但他对太空操作并不陌生。他与妻子安娜相识于休斯顿约翰逊航天中心，当时两人都在NASA工作：他担任飞行外科医生，妻子则是生物医学工程师和飞行控制器。二人于2018年离开NASA，入职SpaceX。
梅农是该公司首位飞行外科医生，帮助建立了商业太空飞行的宇航员医疗规程。他的妻子担任高级工程师，是2024年搭乘亿万富翁贾里德·艾萨克曼包下的龙飞船进行5天太空飞行的两名SpaceX员工之一，艾萨克曼如今已是NASA局长。
梅农离开SpaceX后重新申请加入NASA，并于2021年入选宇航员队伍。安娜于2025年入选宇航员队伍，在完成两年初始训练后即可执行飞行任务。
NASA宇航员安娜与阿尼尔·梅农与他们的两个孩子合影。NASA
梅农的家人与艾萨克曼一同飞往哈萨克斯坦观看了此次联盟号发射，这也是艾萨克曼执掌NASA以来首次到访该发射场。
“我和安娜当初完全没想过会有今天，但这也证明，只要你坚持去做某件事，永远不要自我否定，”阿尼尔·梅农说道。
“这也说明，如果你想加入NASA、进入太空，前路并非只有一条。有时候……只要你长期努力坚持，结果可能会完全出人意料。我们对此完全始料未及。”
机组人员在登上联盟号火箭发射前，向保障人员挥手致意，这是一项传统告别仪式。从上至下：安娜·基基娜、NASA宇航员阿尼尔·梅农和指令官彼得·杜布罗夫。NASA/比尔·英格尔斯
杜布罗夫将监控联盟号飞船自动对接空间站的过程，必要时可手动接管操控。飞船将在发射后3小时9分钟，对接面向地球的普里查尔对接舱。
正在空间站等候迎接他们的是第12长期考察组指令官杰西卡·梅尔、飞行员杰克·哈撒韦、欧洲空间局宇航员索菲·阿代诺和宇航员安德烈·费佳耶夫，以及联盟MS-28/74S指令官谢尔盖· Kud-Sverchkov、安德烈·米卡耶夫和NASA宇航员克里斯·威廉姆斯。
梅农、杜布罗夫和基基娜将替换去年11月升空的联盟MS-28/74S机组人员。NASA计划于9月为梅尔及其队友发射替换机组。
这支新的联盟号机组预计将在空间站驻留约260天，于明年4月返回地球。除少数例外情况外，空间站机组通常驻留5至6个月，但俄罗斯现在将驻留时间延长至8个月，以减少需上行运送的货物量。
而梅农对此表示认可。
“我们执行这类任务时，总会对任何时长的任务做好准备，”他在发射前说道。“所以我这次前往空间站，既乐意也很期待能在那里多待一段时间。”
但他会想念自己5岁和8岁的孩子与妻子。
“我一直在想办法和他们保持联系，因为我和他们视频通话时，他们只会专注大约5秒钟，然后就开始玩别的东西或者摆弄手机，”梅农说道。“所以我带了一些玩具、一些乐高小人，这些东西能让我想起他们，或许能让他们多关注我10秒钟。拭目以待吧。”
在接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访时，他表示妻子在太空飞行时自己留在家里照顾孩子，比他预想的要更艰难。如今他们的角色互换，两人都对彼此面临的挑战有了更深刻的理解。
“当我们聊起她升空、我留在地面的经历时，我觉得留在地面更难，我当时压力真的很大，”他说。“我担心她和孩子们，这当中有很多相关的挑战。”
“我能和她分享这种感受，所以我会跟她说：嘿，听着，我这次执行发射任务会轻松很多。”
他补充道，妻子“也了解了太空飞行和发射是什么样的，以及如何让这段经历更有意义……我们聊了很多。我想，不管是我这边还是她那边，希望我们都能过得更好，也能更理解彼此。”
联盟MS-29/75S机组人员拍摄官方合影。从左至右：NASA宇航员阿尼尔·梅农、联盟号指令官彼得·杜布罗夫和宇航员安娜·基基娜。NASA/俄罗斯航天集团（Roscosmos）
根据NASA与俄罗斯联邦航天集团（Roscosmos）达成的协议，梅农属于本次联盟号机组成员，协议要求每艘联盟号飞船至少搭载一名NASA宇航员，每艘SpaceX龙飞船至少搭载一名俄罗斯宇航员。
该协议确保空间站上始终至少有一名美国人和一名俄罗斯人，以便在联盟号或龙飞船因医疗紧急情况或其他重大问题不得不提前撤离时，能够操作各自的系统。
梅农表示，能与杜布罗夫和基基娜这样的太空老兵一同飞行，他非常幸运。他形容自己的联盟号指令官“性格比较安静，非常有智慧，思维敏锐”。
“他英语说得非常好，喜欢玩魔方和小众科幻作品。他读过艾萨克·阿西莫夫的《基地》系列，还有《杀手机器人》系列，比这些作品改编的电视剧还要早。我们俩特别合得来，因为我也喜欢科幻小说，这真的太棒了。”
至于2022年首次搭乘龙飞船进入太空的基基娜，梅农形容她“精力十足”，“我和彼得都比较安静，所以她能很好地活跃团队气氛，推动我们前进，这真的很棒。”
“她还是个运动员，擅长漂流划船，还参加过俄罗斯版《美国忍者勇士》的节目——名叫《泰坦》——并且轻松夺冠。所以这是一支很棒的队伍，有趣又有活力。他们都上过太空，我有很多东西可以向他们学习，能加入这个团队真是太好了。”
NASA astronaut and 2 cosmonauts blast off for an 8-month stay in space
July 14, 2026 / 12:26 PM EDT / CBS News
Physician-astronaut Anil Menon, a former flight surgeon with NASA and then SpaceX who rejoined NASA as an astronaut along with his wife Anna, rocketed into space Tuesday with two Russian cosmonauts for an eight-month stay aboard the International Space Station.
Soyuz MS-29/75S commander Pyotr Dubrov, flanked on his left by cosmonaut Anna Kikina and on the right by Menon, blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:47 a.m. EDT.
Eight minutes and 46 seconds later, after a smooth climb to orbit, the Soyuz was released for a two-orbit rendezvous with the sprawling lab complex.
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying two veteran cosmonauts and a NASA rookie on a flight to the International Space Station. NASA/Roscosmos
While Menon is a space rookie, he’s no stranger to space operations. He met his wife, Anna, while both were working for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, he as a flight surgeon and she as a biomedical engineer and flight controller. Both left NASA in 2018 and went to work for SpaceX.
Menon was the company’s first flight surgeon, helping establish astronaut medical protocols for commercial space flights. His wife worked as a senior engineer and was one of two SpaceX employees who flew to space in 2024 on a five-day Crew Dragon flight chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman, now NASA’s administrator.
Menon left SpaceX and returned to NASA after applying and being selected to join the agency’s astronaut corps in 2021. Anna was selected to join the corps in 2025 and will be available for flight assignment after she completes two years of initial training.
NASA astronauts Anna and Anil Menon, posing with their two children. NASA
Menon’s family flew to Kazakhstan to attend the Soyuz launch as did Isaacman, his first visit to the complex since taking the reigns at NASA.
“In terms of me and Anna, I would say there was a zero percent chance we thought this would happen, but it does go to show that if you keep working at something, you should never count yourself out,” Anil Menon said.
“It also goes to show that if you’re interested in being a part of NASA, going to space, there’s a lot of different ways this could work out. There isn’t a set course. Sometimes … if you work hard and consistently over time, the results can be completely shocking. We’ve been absolutely shocked by this.”
The crew pauses for a traditional farewell wave to support crews before boarding their Soyuz rocket for launch. Top to bottom: Anna Kikina, NASA astronaut Anil Menon and commander Pyotr Dubrov. NASA/Bill Ingalls
Dubrov will monitor the Soyuz spacecraft’s automated approach to the station, ready to take over manual control if needed as the ship glides in for docking at the Earth-facing Prichal module three hours and nine minutes after launch.
Standing by to welcome them aboard were Crew 12 commander Jessica Meir, pilot Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, along with Soyuz MS-28/74S commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Andrey Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams.
Menon, Dubrov and Kikina are replacing the Soyuz MS-28/74S crew, who were launched to the space station last November. NASA plans to launch a replacement crew for Meir and her crewmates in September.
The fresh Soyuz crew is expected to remain aboard the station for about 260 days, returning to Earth next April. With a few exceptions, station flights have typically lasted for five to six months, but the Russians are now extending visits to eight months to reduce the amount of cargo that has to be shipped up.
And Menon is fine with that.
“We always walk into these missions somewhat prepared for any length of time,” he said before launch. “So I’m going into this willing and excited to spend more time there.”
But he will miss his wife and kids, ages 5 and 8.
“I’m looking for ways to connect with them, because when I Facetime with them, they would give me about five seconds of attention, and then they quickly start playing random things or messing with the phone,” Menon said. “So I’m bringing up some toys, some Lego figurines that will remind me of them, and maybe I can keep them engaged for 10 seconds. We’ll see.”
In an interview with CBS News, he said staying at home with the kids while his wife flew in space was more difficult than he expected. Now that their roles are reversed, both are gaining a better understanding of the challenges faced by both.
“When we talk about what it was like for her to launch and me to be on the ground, I think that was the harder job, and I found it really stressful,” he said. “I was worried about her and the kids, and there were certain challenges related to that.
“I’m able to share that perspective with her, so I’m like, hey, heads up, like it’s going to be a lot easier for me to do this launch.”
For her part, he added, “she’s got insight into what that’s like (to fly in space) and what the launch might be like, and how to make it meaningful. … We’ve talked a lot about that. I think, like, either side of this, my side and her side, hopefully we’re better off, and we understand each other a bit better.”
The Soyuz MS-29/75S crew poses for an official portrait. Left to right: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, Soyuz commander Pyotr Dubrov and cosmonaut Anna Kikina. NASA/Roscosmos
Menon is part of the Soyuz crew under an agreement between NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, that calls for at least one NASA astronaut to launch aboard each Soyuz and one cosmonaut to go up aboard each SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The agreement ensures at least one American and at least one Russian are always aboard the station to operate their respective systems in case a Soyuz or Dragon has to depart early because of a medical emergency or some other major problem.
Menon said he was lucky to be flying with space veterans like Dubrov and Kikina. He described his Soyuz commander as “kind of on the quieter side, really intellectual, really sharp.”
“He speaks incredibly good English, and he’s into Rubik’s cubes and esoteric science fiction. He’s read the Foundation series (by) Isaac Asimov, and Murderbot before the TV shows made those things popular. We really hit it off, because I love science fiction, too, and that’s super cool.”
As for Kikina, who first flew to space aboard a Crew Dragon in 2022, Menon described her as “100 percent full on energy, and really adds a lot to our team because me and Pyotr are a bit more quiet, and so it’s really cool to have her just like keep the engine running and moving us along.
“And she’s an athlete, like a rafter boater, she was on the Russian version of American Gladiator — it’s called Titan — and won that easily. And so it’s a cool crew, an interesting, fun crew to be a part of as well. They’ve also flown to space, so I got a lot to learn and pick up from them, and it’s a good spot to be in.”
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