Three U.S. Astronauts Vote in the Midterms From the International Space Station: Ballots Relayed to Earth by Satellite
November 3 was Election Day in the U.S. midterm elections. Three American astronauts serving on the International Space Station's Expedition 75 crew — Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney — filled out electronic ballots that day in orbit, about 250 miles above Earth, and sent them through NASA's satellite network, encrypted, to the election office in Harris County, Texas.
In a video recorded aboard the station, Menon said: "Today we have the privilege of being able to vote here as well, just like you on the ground." Pointing to his sleep compartment, he said the small quarters "double as a voting booth" for him: "Inside is my computer, where I was able to fill out an electronic form and send it to Harris County so I could vote today." He wore an "I voted" pin in the video.
According to NASA, astronauts vote through the same absentee process as other Americans away from home: they request an absentee ballot with a Federal Post Card Application, complete an electronic ballot aboard the station, and the ballot then flows through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. NASA transfers it to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and on to the county clerk responsible for the astronaut's ballot. The ballot is encrypted and can be accessed only by the astronaut and the clerk.
Voting from space dates to 1997, when Texas passed a law allowing eligible voters on space flights during the early-voting period and on Election Day to cast ballots electronically; astronaut David Wolf cast the first such vote that year from Russia's Mir space station. Because Johnson Space Center is in Houston, many astronauts register to vote in Harris County.
Of this year's three space voters, Menon arrived at the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 14, 2026, while Watkins and Delaney arrived aboard a SpaceX vehicle on October 1. This year's midterms decide all 435 U.S. House seats, 35 of the 100 Senate seats, and governorships and other state and local offices.
(Source: NASA)
Source: NASA
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 国际空间站（Crew-2 绕飞时拍摄，美国航天局 NASA，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons）
