NASA Astronauts Cast Midterm Ballots From the International Space Station

The three American astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station voted in the U.S. midterm elections, completing and securely transmitting electronic ballots from orbit. NASA astronaut Anil Menon confirmed the vote on Nov. 3, saying he and crewmates Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins all took part.

"Yes, you can even vote from space! All three U.S. crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials," Menon wrote in an X post this morning. The post included a 29-second video in which Menon, wearing an "I voted" sticker, showed off his "voting booth," which is actually his crew quarters aboard the station.

Americans have been able to vote from space since 1997, when Texas passed a law allowing it. The first to use the legislation was NASA astronaut David Wolf, who cast his ballot from Russia's Mir space station that same year. The ISS did not welcome its first crew until November 2000.

"Inside of it is my computer, where I was able to fill out an electronic form and send it to Harris County so I could vote today," Menon said of his quarters. Most NASA astronauts register to vote in Texas' Harris County, home to Johnson Space Center in Houston, the agency's human spaceflight hub. As NASA explained, astronauts may fill out a Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot, just like any other American away from home.

The process is involved. After an astronaut completes an electronic ballot aboard the station, the document flows through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the agency's White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. From there, NASA transfers the ballot to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center and then on to the county clerk responsible for casting it. To preserve the vote's integrity, the ballot is encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk. NASA's Near Space Network enables the communication and electronic delivery of ballots from space.

Delaney and Watkins launched to the ISS on Oct. 1 aboard SpaceX's Crew-13 mission. Menon has been aboard since mid-July, arriving on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The trio currently share the orbiting laboratory with four others: Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk and cosmonauts Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov and Sergey Teteryatnikov. Kutryk and Teteryatnikov are members of Crew-13, while Dubrov and Kikina shared the Soyuz with Menon.

For Menon, Delaney and Watkins, the vote meant ensuring their electoral voices were heard while living off Earth, exercising a right established for astronauts nearly three decades ago.