According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile, nautical mile used to be defined as 1/60 of a degree of latitude, but is now defined as exactly 1852 metres. So feasible to use even in space, although unusual.
They are not particularly tied to spheres -- it's just nautical miles per hour, no? As such it can be a totally abstract unit, regardless of the origin (the same way feet can be used to measure something that doesn't involve a walk).
Aviation also uses them (though they still fly above a sphere).
