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    • How do astronauts vote from space?
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    How do astronauts vote from space?

    Harry Posted on

    Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore plan to vote from the International Space Station. They are among four American astronauts who may want to do so at the station.

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    • Astronauts have been voting in U.S. elections since 1997, when the Texas Legislature passed a bill allowing NASA astronauts to vote from orbit.
    • Like other voters, astronauts can fill out an application to request an absentee ballot and will be presented with an electronic form.
    • Ballots filled out in space are beamed back to Earth, where most data is transmitted from the space station to mission control.

    Like millions of Americans who have yet to vote early They’re getting ready to head to local polling places on Tuesdaythere will be a select few They cast their votes from 250 miles above Earth.

    Just because a bunch of American astronauts can’t go to local schools, churches and recreation centers to vote. 2024 presidential election This does not mean that they cannot still have their voices heard. That’s because for nearly 20 years NASA has had a plan in place to allow space travelers to fulfill their civic duties from orbit.

    Before the November 5 elections four Americans in space Who might want to vote? This includes two Boeing Starliner astronauts Those who think they will return to Earth in time to vote in person before the spaceships are sent sent home without them.

    The process of voting from the International Space Station may seem familiar to absentee voters, but of course it’s a little more complicated. Like NASA explainsVoting from orbit involves encrypted ballots being streamed from satellites to a ground antenna before being picked up by county clerks to be counted.

    Here’s everything you need to know about how astronauts vote from space:

    Who might want to vote for president on the International Space Station?

    American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on September 30 were the last space travelers to reach International Space StationHe joins the 72nd Expedition.

    Of the seven people on the orbital outpost, Hague is now among four Americans who will be in space during the election; these include Don Pettit. Arrived with two Cosmonauts in Septemberand Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

    A few months ago, Williams and Wilmore expressed their intention to vote from space.

    “Being involved in these elections is a very important role that we all play as citizens, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that,” Wilmore told reporters. During the press conference on September 13 from the space station.

    Williams added: “I’m looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool.”

    Williams and Wilmore They were only supposed to stay on the space station for 10 days when they arrived in June as part of the first crewed test flight of the Boeing Starliner, which NASA hopes to deploy for regular orbital trips. But since NASA sent the Starliner back to Earth empty after deeming the vehicle unsafe for the crew, Wilmore and Williams will return in February instead. on SpaceX Dragon With Hague and Gorbunov.

    The first astronaut from space voted in 1997

    Before the space station era, American astronauts were never too far from Earth to fulfill their civic duty.

    That changed in 1996, when astronaut John Blaha was unable to vote in that year’s presidential race between President Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Reported on NPR 2020. At the time, Blaha was serving on Russia’s Mir Space Station, the predecessor of the International Space Station.

    Because most NASA astronauts live in Houston, Texas, Texas lawmakers took immediate action when they heard that Blaha had failed in the vote. A year later in 1997, then-Gov. George W. Bush signed the bill into law, create measure Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum under the Texas Administrative Code that allows early voting from space explained In 2020.

    That same year, astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from the former Mir space station — or “vote while swimmingAs NASA joked.

    “This is something that, you know, you may or may not expect to be a big deal,” Wolf said. NPR In 2008. “But when you’re this far from your planet, little things have big effects.”

    Who else voted from space?

    The process hasn’t changed much since then.

    Mir was decommissioned and deorbited in 2001 to make room for the International Space Station, which now serves as the astronauts’ polling place (according to the Smithsonian, they even list their address as “low Earth orbit”).

    Since Wolf pioneered voting from space, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins also voted from orbit; twice actually. Rubins first voted from the International Space Station in the 2016 presidential election and later cast the cosmic ballot again in 2020. According to NASA.

    NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli they also voted by filling out electronic absentee ballots as Texas residents from the space station in March.

    How will astronauts vote on the space station?

    Just like other voters, astronauts can fill out an application to request an absentee ballot and are given an electronic form that will be recognizable to Americans who vote that way.

    Once the forms are connected to NASA’s Johnson Space Center Mission Control, astronauts use unique credentials to access the ballot and cast their votes from the space station, according to NASA.

    Ballots filled out in space are beamed back to Earth, where most data is transmitted from the space station to mission control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Votes were cast on space travel via NASA Near Space NetworkA fleet of antenna systems and relay satellites that provide communications and navigation services to the space station.

    Once the ballots are encrypted and loaded into the space station’s onboard computer system, they are routed via a tracking and data relay satellite to the ground antenna at NASA White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The space agency then transfers the ballots to mission control in Houston, which provides them to the county clerks responsible for processing them.

    Astronauts might not get the coveted “I Voted” sticker, but they can claim something much cooler: Voting in zero gravity is definitely better than voting at your local community center.

    One version of this story Last published on March 5.

    Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

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