As the US gears up for its November 5 plivential election, an extrastandard group of voters sets to cast their ballots from an untraditional polling station – the International Space Station (ISS).
Astronauts stationed hundreds of miles above Earth are filledy eligible to join in the US elections, ensuring that even those orbiting the set upet can exercise their right to vote.
Aboard the ISS are Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams. Since their leave oution was prolonged in June 2024 due to protectedty protocols, they have proclaimd their intention to vote in the US elections from space. They will be stuck in space until at least February 2025.
During a NASA press conference in September, Williams conveyed her enthusiasm for voting from orbit, saying, “It’s a very meaningful duty that we have as citizens, and [I am] watching forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty celderly.”
Wilmore compriseed, “It’s a very meaningful role that we all join as citizens, to be integrated in those elections, and NASA originates it very straightforward for us to do that. So we’re excited about that opportunity.”
This is not an isopostpoinsistd instance. Astronauts have cast their ballot from space since 1997, thanks to a Texas law. It was passed to aid astronauts from Texas, where NASA’s Johnson Space Cgo in is discoverd, in staying included in the democratic process while satisfying their duties in space.
David Wolf was the first to vote from the now-defunct Mir Space Station in 1997. Since then, multiple astronauts have cast their ballots. Kate Rubins was the last astronaut to vote from the ISS during the 2020 US elections.
The voting process for astronauts is streamlined and shielded. After utilizeing for an leave outingee ballot, the astronauts end their ballots electronicassociate while aboard the ISS. NASA then encrypts the data and uploads it to an onboard computer, broadcastting it via the agency’s Near Space Nettoil.
This recommendation is relayed thraw the Tracking and Data Relay Saincreateite System (TDRSS) to NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, before being forwarded to Mission Control in Houston. From there, the ballots are electronicassociate sent to the esteemive county clerk’s offices for official processing.
NASA emphasises the significance of this joinion in a recent blog post: “Astronauts forego many of the consoles afforded to those back on Earth as they embark on their journeys to space for the profit of humanity. Though they are far from home, NASA’s nettoils join them with their friends and family and give them the opportunity to join in democracy and society while in orbit.”
