HOUSTON (The Thursday Times) — Three NASA astronauts have voted in the US midterm elections from the International Space Station, about 400km above the Earth, astronaut Anil Menon said on Tuesday.
“Yes, you can even vote from space! All three US crew members had the privilege of voting from space station. We filled out an electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election officials,” Menon wrote on X. Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins are the other two Americans on board.
In a short video, wearing an “I voted” sticker, Menon showed off his “voting booth”, which is really his sleeping quarters. “Inside of it is my computer, where I was able to fill out an electronic form and send it to Harris County so I could vote today,” he said.
Most NASA astronauts register in Harris County, Texas, home to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Texas passed a law allowing voting from space in 1997, and astronaut David Wolf used it that year to vote from Russia’s Mir space station.
The ballot takes a long route home. According to NASA, it travels by relay satellite to a ground antenna in New Mexico, then to Mission Control in Houston, and finally to the county clerk. It is encrypted so that only the astronaut and the clerk can read it.
The first polls close at 4am on Wednesday, Pakistan time. Follow the results here.
