NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may be on board the International Space Station for an extended stay after issues with Boeing Starliner, but that will not stop them from voting in the November election.
Wilmore told reporters Friday that he and Williams had requested vote-by-mail ballots for the election that day and they should have them in a couple of weeks.
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“That’s a very important role we all play as citizens is to be included in those elections and NASA makes it easy for us to do that, so we’re all excited for that opportunity,” Wilmore said.
“Looking forward to voting from space which is pretty cool,” Williams added.
[RELATED: Everything you need to know to vote in the presidential election in Florida this November]
According to NASA, astronauts have been able to vote from space since 1997. Texas, which is home to many NASA astronauts, even passed a law that allowed people in space to vote during the early voting period. Astronauts from other states need to make arrangements with their home counties.
Astronauts request a ballot using a federal postcard application, which is the same form used by military members serving overseas.
Once the request is made, a special electronic ballot is generated and to the ISS via NASA’s Near Space Network. Specific credentials are sent to the voter to make sure they can access the ballot.
Then the astronaut fills it out and it’s transmitted back to Earth through a data relay satellite to the White Sands Complex in New Mexico. From there, it’s transferred to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and then to a county clerk who is assigned to handle the ballot using a password.
Throughout the process, the ballot is encrypted. NASA says only the voting astronaut and the clerk know how the astronaut voted.
The ballot also must arrive at the elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
The first NASA astronaut to vote from space was David Wolf in 1997, on board the old Mir Space Station.
Wilmore and Williams are the first astronauts to ride in a Boeing Starliner spacecraft to the ISS, which launched in June. However, issues with the spacecraft led to NASA and Boeing bringing Starliner back to Earth on its own and leaving Wilmore and Williams on the space station. The pair are expected to come home next year on a crewed SpaceX Dragon capsule.
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