US presidential polls: Stranded astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore express desire to vote from space
A photo of Sunita Williams (left) and Will Butchmore (right).
NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are stranded at the International Space Station (ISS), have expressed their desire to vote in the upcoming presidential election in the United States (US), American media reported on Friday (Sept 13).
Theirreturn to Earth is held for months due to technical problems with the Boeing Starliner, and they are expected to remain in space at least till February 2025.
Excited for voting
Addressing a press conference from the ISS, Williams and Butchmoresaid they requested a ballot, terming voting as an "important role" played by citizens.
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"I sent down my request for a ballot today, as a matter of fact, and they should get it to us in a couple of weeks," Wilmore said.
"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. We're excited for that opportunity," he added.
NASA astronauts have been voting from space since 1997.
How does voting happen from space?
That year, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that allowed such voting to happen.NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from space on the Mir Space Station in 1997.
In 2020, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins also performed her civic duty from space on the ISS.
Rubins’ ballot — like most data transmitted between the space station and mission control — traversed through NASA’s Near Space Network, managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA said in a statement.
After Rubins filled out her specially designed, electronic absentee ballot aboard the orbiting laboratory, the document flowed through a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to a ground antenna at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico, NASA added.
From New Mexico, NASA transfers the ballot to the Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and then on to the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot. The ballot is encrypted and only accessible by the astronaut and the clerk to preserve the vote’s integrity.