NASA astronaut casts midterm ballot from Space station

NASA astronaut Anil Menon cast an electronic ballot in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections from the International Space Station on Nov. 3, 2026, sending it to election officials in Harris County, Texas.

All three U.S. crew members aboard the station had the opportunity to vote from orbit in the 2026 midterms on Nov. 3, 2026. Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney cast ballots from the station alongside Menon during the election. They are fellow U.S. crew members who also cast ballots from the station.

Menon completed the ballot using a computer inside the station laboratory and sent the electronic form to Harris County election officials on Nov. 3, 2026. He showed his orbital voting setup in a video posted to X from the station’s sleeping compartment that day, describing the compartment as his sleeping quarters that doubled as a voting booth. He also wrote on social media that he and his crewmates had transmitted the ballot securely.

Menon described the vote in his own words. “We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials,” he wrote. He also said, “the privilege of being able to vote here as well, just like you on the ground.”

The process starts with an absentee ballot requested through a Federal Post Card Application. After an astronaut finishes the ballot on the station, it moves through NASA’s Near Space Network, which also carries other station-to-Earth communications.

A NASA description shared in 2024 said an electronic ballot completed aboard the ISS flows through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at a test facility. That description outlines part of the ballot transmission path before it reaches Mission Control and the county clerk.

In the route described for the 2026 vote, the ballot passes through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna in New Mexico, then goes to Mission Control in Houston before reaching the county clerk. NASA states that the ballot uses encryption and that only the astronaut and the county clerk can access it.

In 1997, Texas lawmakers passed legislation permitting astronauts to cast ballots from orbit. David Wolf was the first American astronaut to vote from space, doing so in 1997 from Russia’s Mir station under the Texas provision. Wolf cast his ballot from Mir under that provision, establishing the precedent for later station crews.

NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is located in Harris County, Texas. The center’s location in the same county as the election officials was noted while explaining that Menon sent his ballot to Harris County. Menon’s ballot went to the county where NASA’s Johnson Space Center is based, linking the agency’s home base to the election delivery point.

Menon rode to the station on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft in July 2026. Watkins and Delaney launched to the ISS aboard a SpaceX rocket in October 2026, the month before the November vote.