Three NASA astronauts aboard the ISS cast midterm votes from orbit on 3 November

Three crew members cast ballots from orbit

Three NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station, Anil Menon, Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, voted in the US midterm elections on Tuesday, 3 November 2026. The station orbits more than 400 kilometres above Earth. Menon posted a video on X saying that all three American crew members had voted, having completed an electronic ballot that was sent securely to election officials. In the video he explained that he had turned his personal quarters on the station into a makeshift polling booth. His ballot was sent to Harris County, Texas, where his vote is recorded.

How the ballot travels from orbit

The ballot is encrypted and, according to the articles, can be opened only by the astronaut and the authorised election official. It moves over the Near Space Network, the NASA communications network managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. One account describes the route in more detail: the ballot goes through NASA's satellite relay system to a ground antenna at the White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. From there it passes to Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and finally to the county election official responsible for the astronaut's vote.

A method in use since 1997

A Texas law approved in 1997 made it possible for astronauts to vote from space, according to AGI. Many NASA astronauts live in Texas because of the proximity to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The procedure lets astronauts receive and return ballots without coming back to Earth. Astronauts can also use the Federal Post Card Application, the form that US citizens living away from home use to request an absentee ballot, and coordinate with the local election office where they live.

Crew arrivals and what is on the ballot

Menon reached the station on 14 July 2026 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Delaney and Watkins launched on 1 October on a SpaceX rocket. The midterms decide all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats, according to Libertatea. The BBC, cited by the same outlet, calls the vote a referendum on President Donald Trump, who is in his second term. The Independent reports that control of both chambers of Congress, along with governorships and local positions, is at stake. A Reuters/Ipsos poll put Trump's approval at 31%.

Wider context of the vote

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman commented that the astronauts are far from the planet yet still turn out to vote, a message that also works as a reminder to undecided voters on Earth. The articles do not report any results from the election, and the vote count was still under way when the reports were published.