NASA astronaut Anil Menon said he and fellow International Space Station crew members Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins submitted ballots in the 2026 U.S. election from orbit. Menon described sending his ballot electronically to Harris County, Texas, according to Space.com.
Menon shared the news on November 3, the day of the Texas general election. In a video accompanying his post, he showed an “I voted” sticker and said his cabin served as his polling place. The three astronauts are the U.S. members of the station’s crew.
How a ballot reaches election officials
NASA’s process begins with an astronaut requesting an absentee ballot. Once completed aboard the station, the ballot travels through the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at White Sands, New Mexico. It is then routed to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston and forwarded to the relevant county election official.
NASA says ballots are encrypted, with access limited to the astronaut and the authorized election official. Harris County is the usual destination for NASA astronauts because the Johnson Space Center is in Houston.
Voting from orbit has been permitted under Texas law since 1997. NASA astronaut David Wolf was the first American to vote from space, casting a ballot from Russia’s Mir space station that year.
Clayton Ward