Astronauts vote in elections too.
Just because you're flying miles above the Earth's surface in space, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to vote - after all, it's in the Constitution. There are plenty of questions about how things work in space, but away from how astronauts eat, wash, and go to the toilet, some of you might be wondering how they vote in space. We've come a long way from George Washington being voted as the first President of the United States in 1789, but as Donald Trump prepares to step back into the White House to become the 47th, the right to vote remains an important one.
There are currently four Americans aboard the International Space Station, with SpaceX Crew-9 NASA astronauts Don Pettit, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams circling above us. As Wilmore and Williams were supposed to return just a few days after they boarded the ISS, they presumably never thought they'd have to vote from space.
While you might think voting from space is a relatively new issue, astronauts have actually been doing it for 27 years.
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To vote from space, astronauts have to request Federal Post Card Applications for absentee ballots, or they can vote early in coordination with their county clerk’s office.
When astronauts have decided who they're voting for, the data is transmitted electronically via the Near Space Network antenna systems and satellites. The document is sent through the 'track and data relay satellite system' to New Mexico, then sent on to Mission Control at Texas' Johnson Space Center in Houston. The ballot is encrypted and can only be accessed by the individual astronaut or the count clerk, with the latter then casting the vote.
Texas passed legislature in 1997 that allowed NASA astronauts to cast ballots from orbit, and the honor of being the first American to cast a vote from space goes to David Wolf aboard Russia’s Mir Space Station. Most recently until Pettit, Hague, Wilmore, and Williams, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins cast her vote in the November 2020 presidential election.
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Discussing what it was like voting from space in a September call with reporters, Williams said: "It's a very important duty that we have as citizens. She added that voting from space is 'pretty cool.'
She reiterated: "NASA makes it very easy for us to [be included in elections], so we're excited about that opportunity."
Of course, voting from space is something that most of us will likely never have to worry about. Unless you've got a spare $60 million to get one one of Musk's SpaceX ships, chances are you'll still be casting your next vote from on the ground.