Voting is both a right and responsibility in American society, one that most citizens take quite seriously. But what happens when your job takes you off the planet during an election? This unique challenge faces American astronauts living and working 250 miles above Earth on the International Space Station (ISS). Thanks to special provisions established in 1997, space travelers can fully participate as voters, even when orbiting far above their local polling places.
The process was first pioneered in 1997 when a new Texas law (Texas Administrative Code Rule 81.35) laid out a secure technical framework to enable astronauts—most of whom reside in the Lone Star State near their training base in Houston—to receive and submit absentee ballots electronically. That November, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to cast a vote from space while aboard the Russian space station Mir.
Today the system relies on close coordination between the astronaut, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the ISS Program Operations Control Center, and county clerks back on Earth. About a year before launch, astronauts indicate which elections they want to vote in while in orbit. Then a few weeks prior to Election Day, the local county clerk’s office generates a secure electronic ballot specific to that voter and transmits it to NASA’s Mission Control. As Kate Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space, described it in an interview: “I think it’s really important for everybody to vote. If we can do it from space, then I believe folks can do it from the ground, too.”
On the user end, Mission Control uplinks the ballot to the ISS and sends the astronaut a set of unique credentials to access the ballot. They fill it out electronically, voting for the various candidates and measures just like any Earthbound citizen. But instead of walking down the street to drop it in a local ballot box, they downlink the completed file back to Mission Control, which transfers custody back to the county clerk’s office. For added security, only the designated astronaut can access their personalized ballot using the credentials provided.
While novel, the technical process is quite straightforward, relying on the same secure data networks used to operate ISS systems and communicate with crews daily. The infrastructure is managed by NASA’s Space Network Ground Segment through a global array of satellites and ground stations, ensuring ballots remain private and untampered.
To date, dozens of American astronauts have voted from orbit in this manner, participating in presidential, congressional, statewide and local elections.
A few crew members have spoken about what the process means to them personally. Shane Kimbrough called it “a very special place to be, first of all, for anything and especially to vote,” adding “It’s a right that we have here, and it was neat to exercise that right from such a unique vantage point.” For David Wolf casting the first space ballot in 1997, he recalled feeling “closer to the Earth and like the people of earth actually cared about me up there.”
While the ISS won’t host an official polling location anytime soon, the provisions for astronaut voting recognize the importance of facilitating this democratic right for all citizens. Kate Rubins summarized it best: “If we can do it from space, then I believe folks can do it from the ground, too.”