Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
5%
1 of 21 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
60/100
Euronews's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
4
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
In a rare event, three American astronauts voted in Tuesday's US midterm elections from the International Space Station, using advanced links to send electronic ballots to officials on Earth.
asserted
astronauts → vote → Earth
NASA astronaut Anil Menon announced that he and his colleagues Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins had cast their votes from the space station, stressing that the process took place via a secure electronic system that ensures ballots reach election officials.
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ballots → announce → officials
In a post on X, Menon wrote that it is indeed possible to vote even from space.
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it → write → space
He attached a 29-second video in which he shows an “I voted” sticker and gives a tour of what he described as his own “polling station”, which in reality was his private cabin on the International Space Station.
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which → attach → Station
He explained that he had filled out the form on his computer and sent it to Harris County in Texas, where his vote was officially recorded.
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vote → explain → Texas
Harris County is the usual electoral destination for NASA astronauts because it is home to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the agency’s main centre for managing human spaceflight missions.
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it → manage → missions
How do votes travel back to Earth?
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votes → travel → Earth
Despite the distance, the voting process relies on the same infrastructure that NASA uses every day to exchange data and messages with the station through its space communications and navigation programme.
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NASA → rely → programme
According to the agency, the procedure starts with the astronaut requesting an absentee ballot using the “Federal Post Card Application”, a form also used by US military personnel serving far from home.
uncertain
astronaut → accord → home
Once completed on board, the ballot is transmitted via NASA’s “Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System” to a ground antenna at the agency’s White Sands facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
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ballot → complete → Cruces
From there, it is transferred to Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center before being forwarded to the relevant county election official to be registered and counted.
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it → transfer → official
NASA stresses that the process is subject to strict security measures to protect the secrecy and integrity of the vote.
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process → stress → vote
The ballot is encrypted, and only the astronaut and the authorised election official can see its contents.
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astronaut → encrypt → contents
A voting tradition that began almost three decades ago
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that → begin → tradition
Although voting from beyond planet Earth is highly unusual, the practice itself is not new.
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practice → vote → Earth
It began in 1997, when the Texas legislature passed a law allowing NASA astronauts to vote in US elections while in orbit.
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astronauts → begin → orbit
American astronaut David Wolf was the first to do so, casting his vote that same year from the Russian space station Mir, almost three years before the International Space Station welcomed its first permanent crew in November 2000.
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Station → do → November
The three astronauts who voted this year arrived on two separate missions.
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who → vote → missions
Delaney and Watkins launched on 1 October last year as part of SpaceX’s “Crew-13” mission, while Menon arrived in mid-July aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
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Menon → launch → spacecraft
They are living alongside four other crew members: Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonauts Anna Kikina, Pyotr Dubrov and Sergei Teteriatnikov.
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They → live → members
Kutryk and Teteriatnikov are also part of “Crew-13”, while Dubrov and Kikina arrived with Menon on the Soyuz.
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Dubrov → arrive → Soyuz
The Aporia
