NASA station update documents Menon’s immune-study sample processing

NASA’s September 24 station update documents astronaut Anil Menon processing immune-study blood samples after a 24-hour incubation aboard the International Space Station. The agency’s account describes the tubes going into cold storage for later analysis, completing that stage of the experiment.

Working in the Harmony module, Menon removed the samples from the Kubik incubator and used a centrifuge to separate their blood components, NASA wrote. He then transferred the tubes to a science freezer. The report identifies subsequent analysis aboard the station as the next step.

NASA’s September 22 account had identified Menon’s work as part of the Immunity Assay investigation. He collected blood and saliva samples that day. The study seeks to understand how microgravity affects astronauts’ capacity to resist infection and disease.

Menon is an emergency-medicine physician, according to his NASA biography. He was born in Minneapolis to Ukrainian and Indian immigrants and launched to the station in July 2026.

The September 24 update provides a sample-processing account, with no new immune-system findings or treatment results. It does not give a date for publication of the analysis.