How NASA astronauts vote from space

With Election Day connected nan horizon, galore Americans are making plans to ballot — but immoderate of those votes will person to recreation an awfully agelong way. For nan NASA astronauts connected committee nan International Space Station (ISS), they person to make plans to formed their ballots from 250 miles supra nan Earth’s surface, wherever they are orbiting successful space.

Fortunately,there is simply a strategy successful spot to make judge that astronauts get their opportunity successful democracy, though they do person to capable retired an absentee ballot arsenic location aren’t immoderate polling stations nearby. Astronauts for illustration NASA’s Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, shown above, voted successful nan Texas primaries successful march this year, utilizing an physics strategy that conveys their votes from nan physics ballot they capable successful to Mission Control astatine NASA’s Johnson Space Center successful Houston, which sends them connected to nan region clerk’s office.

NASA’s Near Space Network enables astronauts connected nan International Space Station to pass pinch Earth and electronically present predetermination ballots from space. NASA

Though it mightiness sound for illustration a hassle, astronauts person expressed their excitement astatine getting to ballot from space. When NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams recovered retired that they would beryllium staying connected nan ISS longer than primitively planned owed to issues pinch nan Boeing Starliner spacecraft they traveled to nan ISS on, they said that voting from abstraction would beryllium a typical experience.

“It’s a very important work that we person arsenic citizens and I’m looking guardant to being capable to ballot from space, which is beautiful cool,” Williams said successful a property convention erstwhile nan determination was announced. “I sent down my petition for a ballot today,” Wilmore said astatine nan time. “It’s a very important domiciled that we each play arsenic citizens, to beryllium included successful those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for america to do that.”

Astronaut voting has been successful spot since nan precocious 1990s, and started erstwhile NASA astronaut John Blaha, who was based connected nan Mir abstraction station, said he wanted to vote, but location was nary unafraid measurement for him to do so. A strategy was group up nan adjacent year, successful conjunction pinch nan Texas authorities legislature, and David Wolf became nan first U.S. astronaut to ballot from abstraction successful 1997.

There are immoderate complexities to nan process, though. Marta Durham, nan Daily Operations and Crew Support coach astatine NASA, explained that absentee ballots must beryllium hand-signed, not electronically signed, truthful they usually effort to get ballots signed earlier astronauts time off Earth. But pinch nan lawsuit of Wilmore and Williams, because they are staying longer than expected, they needed to people retired nan ballots successful space, motion them, and past scan their signatures. And nan problem pinch that is that scanners usage glass, and solid is not allowed connected nan ISS for information reasons.

In nan end, Durham did immoderate experimenting and recovered that nan iPads that nan astronauts usage connected nan position person cameras which activity good capable arsenic scanners — and nan only situation pinch that was getting nan portion of insubstantial to dishonesty level without gravity. But it was each managed successful nan end, truthful some Wilmore and Williams were capable to formed their votes.