NASA astronaut Anil Menon successfully exercised his civic duty for the U.S. midterm elections by voting directly from the International Space Station. Turning his orbital sleeping quarters into a temporary voting booth, Menon completed an encrypted electronic ballot using an onboard computer.
From a vantage point more than 400 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, the completed ballot was transmitted through NASA's dedicated communications network. The data first traveled to a ground station located in New Mexico before being routed to Mission Control in Houston.
From Houston, the transmission was securely forwarded to the appropriate local election officials in Harris County, Texas. Menon was among a trio of NASA spaceflyers who participated in the democratic process from orbit during the midterm elections.