Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be casting their votes in the US election from space thanks to a high-tech encrypted system.
The crew, including two members stranded due to a Boeing Starliner malfunction, will send their votes back to Earth. NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are stuck in orbit until at least February 2025, have expressed their intention to vote from space and have requested absentee ballots for the upcoming election. In a press interview in September, Wilmore said: “I sent down my request for a ballot today. As a matter of fact, they should get it to us in a couple of weeks.
“It’s a very important role that we all play as citizens, to be included in those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that. So we’re excited about that opportunity.”
Williams continued: “It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool.”
(Image: NASA / SWNS)
NASA astronauts on the Space Station can vote in general elections through absentee ballots or early voting, coordinated with the county clerk’s office where they live.
Like any other American away from home, astronauts can fill out a Federal Post Card Application to request a ballot. Once an astronaut completes an electronic ballot aboard the ISS, the document is sent through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces.
New Mexico is the starting point. From there, NASA sends the ballot to the Mission Control Center at NASA Johnson and then forwards it to the county clerk in charge of casting the vote.
(Image: NASA / SWNS)
To ensure the integrity of the vote, the ballot is encrypted and can only be accessed by the astronaut and the clerk. The first American to cast a presidential vote from space was Leroy Chiao in 2004 while aboard the ISS.
American astronaut Kathleen Rubins has also voted from space twice, in 2016 and 2020.
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