Nasa astronaut casts midterms vote from space – video

Nasa astronaut Anil Menon cast his vote in the 2026 US midterm elections from the International Space Station. In a video shared on election day, he said he completed an electronic ballot on a station computer and sent it to election officials in Harris County, Texas. Menon said all three American crew members aboard the station had the opportunity to vote from orbit.

Astronauts can arrange absentee voting with the election office where they live. According to Nasa, a completed electronic ballot travels through its communications network to Mission Control and then to the relevant county clerk. The ballot is encrypted so that only the astronaut and the clerk can access it. Americans have voted from space since 1997, when David Wolf cast a ballot while aboard the Mir space station.