By Robin Chapman
LOS ALTOS, Calif. (Los Altos Town Crier) — Lt. Cmdr. Martin Manoukian, MD, stood on the deck of the USS John P. Murtha just after 5 p.m. April 10 scanning the skies for the Artemis II space capsule Integrity as it raced through the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour, headed for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
On board the capsule were four astronauts returning from their mission around the Moon – the farthest journey into space taken by humans from planet Earth.
Manoukian, a Navy physician who grew up in Los Altos Hills and a 2009 graduate of Saint Francis High School, was on board the warship to lead one of two special emergency surgical teams that night.
“With helicopters in use, possible flaming debris from the capsule, divers and boat teams in the water, we knew we had serious damage potential,” Manoukian said. The two medical teams set up operating rooms on the Murtha and spent a year rehearsing with NASA scenarios that might require their medical intervention.
Manoukian, 35, earned his medical degree at UC Davis. He’s also the grandson of local orthopedic surgeon Dr. Manasseh Manoukian, who died in 2009. Dr. Manasseh Manoukian’s son, Superior Court Judge Socrates Peter Manoukian, a 1968 graduate of Los Altos High School, bought the family home from his father in 1994 and he and his wife Patricia, a recently retired California Appeals Court Justice, raised their three boys there. Martin is their youngest.
