Voted! Astronauts also cast their vote from ISS

No excuse for skipping elections, not even when we are in orbit 400 kilometers from Earth! And this is thanks to NASA, which set up a secure voting system in 1997. The system was established to respond to the long missions of astronauts, which can last several months and overlap with the electoral period. In 1997, astronaut David Wolf became the first to vote from space during a mission aboard the Russian space station Mir.

A unique and very secure voting process

The process of voting from space works similarly to postal voting: astronauts fill out their ballots electronically and return them via a secure communications network. According to NASA, votes are sent via the Near Space Network, a set of satellites in Earth’s orbit, and are then encrypted to ensure confidentiality. Once the ballot is filled out, it is transmitted to a ground control center, where it is routed to the offices of election commissioners in the astronauts’ counties.

Follow the US presidential elections

This procedure guarantees the integrity of the vote, with ballots accessible only by the astronaut and the electoral official. This system is used, for example, by astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who, despite complications with their Boeing Starliner capsule, were able to vote from the ISS.