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A 1997 bill passed by Texas legislators set up a technical procedure for astronauts, nearly all of whom live in Houston, to cast their ballot from 220 miles above Earth.
In 1997, NASA’s David Wolf became the first astronaut to cast his using this provision while he was aboard the Russian Space Station Mir.
Here’s how
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Then, before Election Day, an encrypted electronic ballot is uplinked to the astronauts by JSC’s Mission Control. Using a set of unique credentials sent to each of them by e-mail, astronauts can access their ballots, cast their votes, and downlink them back down to Earth to the County Clerk’s office.