US President Donald Trump has praised Indian-origin NASA astronaut Anil Menon and his two crewmates as “great Americans, great patriots, brave people” during a call with the International Space Station (ISS), and invited them to the Oval Office after their return to Earth.
“This is a great honor, to be with you is a great honor and I just want to thank Jessica, Anil, Jack, great Americans, great patriots, brave people,” Trump said during Friday’s call from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“I wouldn’t do it. I will tell you right now, I hate to admit it, I would not want to do it, but some people love it more than anything,” he added.
Trump praised Menon, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway for their courage, saying their selection for the mission itself was a significant achievement.
Menon, a colonel in the US Space Force, told Trump he was proud to serve in space and spoke about a spacewalk he completed last week.
“Thank you, sir. And I would like to say, as a colonel in the Space Force, that I am very proud to serve in the largest domain imaginable,” Menon said.
“Last week, I got the great honor of doing a spacewalk and got to look at the space station from the robotic arm and saw the incredible ingenuity that we are capable of,” he added.
Menon also said he was “so proud and excited” about the US preparing for missions beyond low-Earth orbit.
“We are going to pave the way to our next journey to the Moon, Moon Base and Mars,” he said, thanking Trump for supporting the effort.
The call came after Trump announced plans to establish a US Space Academy. He said the proposed institution would be placed on the same level as the US military service academies, including West Point, the Naval Academy, the Coast Guard Academy and the Air Force Academy.
“If we’re going to do it, it has to be at that very high level. Those are among the hardest schools to get into in the whole country,” Trump said.
Menon’s wife, Anna Menon, also joined Trump at the space centre and briefly spoke to the astronauts.
“Hi, it’s Anna. Great to see you guys up there. We love you guys. You’re doing a great job,” she said.
Trump said he was proud of establishing the US Space Force during his first term and stressed the growing importance of space-based intelligence for military operations amid advances in technology.
“You’re really pioneers. In a true sense, they’re really pioneers,” Trump told the crew.
Hathaway, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, said the institution would be ready to support the proposed Space Academy. Meir said the crew was completing several spacewalks and preparing for another one the following week.
Trump concluded the call by asking the astronauts to return safely and inviting them to the White House.
“Great job. Very proud. We’re going to see you when you get back. In fact, if you want, Oval Office time, right? So you’ll – we’ll see you in the Oval Office, OK? Thank you very much. Be safe,” he said.
Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis to Indian and Ukrainian immigrant parents. NASA selected him for its 2021 astronaut candidate class after he served as SpaceX’s first flight surgeon and as a NASA crew flight surgeon supporting International Space Station missions.
He launched aboard Russia’s Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft on July 14 along with cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. NASA said the three-member crew is expected to spend about eight months aboard the orbital laboratory, conducting research and technology demonstrations before returning to Earth in April 2027.
(IANS Inputs)
