Astronauts Cast Midterm Ballots From Orbit

Three astronauts aboard the International Space Station cast their ballots in the midterm elections on Tuesday. The crew members, including Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins, and Luke Delaney, used electronic forms to participate in the vote while in orbit. Menon, who launched to the station in July aboard a Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft, described the process in a social media video.

Menon stated that he had the privilege of voting from space just as voters on the ground do. He identified his living quarters as doubling as a voting booth. Inside that module, he accessed a computer to fill out an electronic form. He sent the completed document to Harris County, which is home to NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.

Watkins and Delaney also cast their votes. They arrived at the station last month via a SpaceX rocket. All three Americans followed the same procedure as other citizens who are away from home on election day. They filed a Federal Post Card Application to request absentee ballots.

Once an astronaut submits an electronic ballot on the station, the data travels through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The signal reaches a ground antenna at a test facility. From there, the votes are routed to Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. The documents are then forwarded to the relevant county clerk responsible for handling the individual ballot.

NASA encrypts the ballots to ensure privacy. Only the astronaut and the county clerk can access the information. This system allows the crew to participate in the political process while stationed approximately 250 miles above Earth. The method relies on existing satellite infrastructure to transmit the data securely.

American astronauts have been voting from space since 1997. The Texas Legislature passed a bill that year permitting NASA astronauts to cast ballots from orbit. David Wolf holds the distinction of being the first American astronaut to vote while in space. He completed the act while aboard the Mir Space Station.

Wolf told The Atlantic in 2016 that he voted alone in space. He was the only English speaker on the station at the time. He noted that having an English ballot made him feel closer to Earth and indicated that people on the planet cared about him in orbit.