NASA astronauts cast votes from International Space Station

Three NASA astronauts, Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins, and Luke Delaney, participated in the 2026 US midterm elections by casting electronic ballots from the International Space Station (ISS). Located approximately 400 kilometers above Earth, the crew members used secure communication networks to transmit their votes to election officials.

Astronaut Anil Menon shared a video on social media showing how he used a computer in his sleeping compartment, which served as a temporary voting booth, to complete the process. His ballot was sent to Harris County, Texas, home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

The voting procedure utilizes NASA’s Near Space Network to transmit encrypted data from the orbital laboratory to ground stations. This system ensures that ballots remain private and can only be accessed by the voter and authorized election officials. The ability for astronauts to vote from orbit has been an established procedure since 1997.