(Photo : Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Onlookers watch a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on May 6, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
A mother of two plans to livestream herself reading a children's book from a rocket ship during a flight that could feature the first civilian spacewalks, according to a report Saturday.
Anna Menon, a lead space operations engineer at billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX company, is scheduled to be among four civilian astronauts who will blast off on the Polaris Dawn mission as early as this summer.
The crew will spend up to five days conducting research, trying to reach the highest Earth orbit ever known and attempting the first civilian spacewalks in new, specially designed spacesuits.
But Menon, 38, told People she also has a treat in store for the children — James, 6, and Grace, 3 — she shares with NASA astronaut Anil Menon.
"I'm going to read a children's book I wrote, 'Kisses from Space,' to both my kids as well as some of the brave kids at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," she said.
The celestial story time session will also serve as a fundraiser for the Mempis, Tennessee, hospital, which raked in more than $250 million from a fundraising appeal tied to the 2021 SpaceX Inspiration4 mission.
"We can make huge strides for our collective future but also address the problems here on Earth today," said Menon, who's a former NASA biomechanical engineer.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who also served as commander of the Inpsiration4 mission.
Isaacman, founder and CEO of the payment processing company Shift4 Payments, and Sarah Gillis, another SpaceX engineer, have been selected for the potential spacewalks.
Menon, who will serve as a mission specialist and medical officer, and pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, will remain inside a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
The flight is intended to provide new information about the abilities of humans to adapt, live and work in space as NASA plans for a "Moon to Mars" mission.
"This is a stepping stone," Anna Menon said. "It's helping to build technologies that will get humans closer to Mars and beyond."
