Human spaceflight

ESA releases Anil Menon’s footage of Dragon hatch closure

The 47-second clip, dated October 7, credits the Indian-origin NASA astronaut with filming the return preparations. His role in the record is behind the camera.

10 October 2026 at 9:54 am ISTBy Mission Desk1 min read

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Crew-12 members Andrey Fedyaev, Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot in pressure suits in a portrait NASA released on October 5, 2026. This identifying photograph is not a frame from the hatch-closure clip. Credit: NASA/Anil Menon.

The European Space Agency has released a 47-second hatch-closure clip filmed by NASA astronaut Anil Menon. Its video catalogue dates the footage October 7 and places it in the collection covering Sophie Adenot’s Epsilon mission return to Earth.

NASA’s October 7 station update recorded the hatch closing between the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the International Space Station at 6:05 a.m. EDT, or 10:05 UTC. That operation began Crew-12’s return preparations. ESA’s credit identifies Menon as the filmmaker; it does not establish that he personally closed the hatch.

Menon was born and raised in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants, according to his NASA biography. The agency records his July 14 launch aboard Soyuz MS-29 for an approximately eight-month station mission.

NASA’s return advisory named Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev as Dragon’s returning crew. Menon’s newly published filming credit concerns his documentation of their departure preparations, rather than membership of the returning quartet.

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