Three NASA astronauts cast their ballots in the US midterm elections on Tuesday from the International Space Station, voting from orbit more than 400 kilometres above Earth.
Anil Menon, Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins filled out electronic ballots and sent them securely to election officials, according to the PTI news agency, which reported the vote on Tuesday.
Menon announced the vote himself in a post on X. “Yes, you can even vote from space!” he wrote. “All three US crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials.”
How a ballot travels from orbit
Like most data sent between the space station and mission control, the ballot travels through NASA’s Near Space Network, which is managed by the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The ballot is encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk, preserving the secrecy of the vote, PTI reported.
Menon said he filled out an electronic form inside his room on the station, which he described as doubling as a polling booth, and sent it to Harris County in Texas. The reports checked for this article state only Menon’s destination county; they do not say where Delaney’s and Watkins’ ballots were sent.
Who voted from the station
Menon reached the International Space Station on July 14 on board a Russian Soyuz mission. Delaney and Watkins arrived at the orbital laboratory on October 1 on board a SpaceX rocket.
All three are the US crew members currently stationed on the ISS, and all three were able to vote, Menon said in his post.
Voting from space is not new
Astronauts voting from orbit is an established practice rather than a first. Texas passed a law in 1997 allowing astronauts to vote electronically while on space missions, according to an Economic Times explainer citing ABC News reporting.
The United States voted on Tuesday in midterm elections to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 state governors and a host of local officials, alongside Senate contests.
What happens next
The astronauts’ ballots now enter the normal counting process through the election officials who received them. No result or outcome is affected by the space vote itself, and nothing in the reports suggests any delay or problem with the three ballots.
The vote is a reminder that election day reaches even the most remote polling place of all: a room on a station travelling around Earth at about 28,000 kilometres per hour.
Sources
- ThePrint (PTI): NASA astronaut Anil Menon, others vote from space
- The Economic Times: NASA astronaut Anil Menon, others vote from space
- NewsBytes: NASA astronauts vote in US midterm elections from ISS
Frequently asked questions
Can astronauts vote from space? Yes. US astronauts fill out an electronic ballot on a computer on the station and send it securely to election officials.
How is a space ballot kept secret? The ballot is encrypted and, according to PTI, accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk.
Which astronauts voted in the 2026 midterms? NASA astronauts Anil Menon, Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins, the three US crew members on the International Space Station.
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