On November 5, Americans will elect Donald Trump or Kamala Harris as the next president, and NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the opportunity to vote in the elections! This is a type of postal voting, and the US space agency has detailed the process.
Like any data sent from the ISS, the data passes through the Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program. It all goes through the agency’s Near Space Network, a network that connects missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth.
The bulletin goes from New Mexico to Texas
Like any traveling American, astronauts can fill out a federal postcard application to request an absentee ballot. After an astronaut completes an electronic ballot aboard the orbiting laboratory, the document is transmitted by NASA’s Satellite Tracking and Data Relay System to a ground antenna at the White Sands Test Center. the agency in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
From New Mexico, NASA then transfers the ballot to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, then to the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot. To preserve the integrity of the vote, the ballot is encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk.
photo credit: Credit: NASANASA’s Near Space Network allows astronauts on the International Space Station to vote electronically from space. Credit: NASA
In place for 27 years
The first to vote from space was David Wolf in 1997. At the time, he sent his ballot from the Mir space station. In 2020, it was the American Kate Rubins who voted from the ISS. This year, among the “Space voters”, there will be Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stuck until February 2025 in the international station. They hadn’t planned to still be in orbit at the time of the vote, and they took steps to vote. From up there.
“It’s a very important duty as citizens and I can’t wait to be able to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” Williams said. Same story with his unfortunate partner. “I sent my request to vote. It’s a very important role that we all play as citizens to participate in these elections, and NASA is making it much easier for us. »
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