NASA astronaut Anil Menon and others cast their votes from orbit.

Washington: Three NASA astronauts, including Anil Menon, voted in the US midterm elections on Tuesday from the International Space Station, which orbits more than 400 km above Earth. Menon, along with astronauts Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins, completed an electronic ballot and securely transmitted it to election officials. “Yes, you can even vote from space,” Menon wrote in a post on X.

All three US crew members had the opportunity to cast their votes from the space station. They filled out the electronic ballot and sent it securely to the election authorities. Menon arrived at the International Space Station on July 14 aboard a Russian Soyuz mission, while Delaney and Watkins reached the orbiting laboratory on October 1 aboard a SpaceX rocket.

“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 said. The US went to the polls on Tuesday in the midterm elections to choose 435 members of the House of Representatives, 37 senators, 36 state governors, and numerous local officeholders.

Like most data sent between the space station and mission control, the ballot was routed through NASA’s Near Space Network, which is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland. The ballot is encrypted and accessible only to the astronaut and the clerk, ensuring the privacy and integrity of the vote. In a short video, Menon said he cast his vote from his room aboard the ISS, which served as his polling booth.

He added that he filled out an electronic form and sent it to Harris County, Texas.