Astronauts on missions will also be able to vote in the US presidential election even while in Earth orbit.
American astronauts have been able to vote from space since 1997, thanks to a law passed in Texas, home of NASA‘s Johnson Space Center (JSC).
The law allows “a person who meets the requirements of a voter… but will be in space flight during early voting and on Election Day” to vote from space.
The new legislation was adopted as U.S. astronauts have begun to undertake long, multi-month missions that could have made it impossible for them to participate in the election.
So, how does voting from space work? Astronauts on a mission follow a process similar to absentee voting, where voters cast their ballots while away from their regular polling place.
According to NASA, the astronauts’ votes are transmitted, like most data between the space station and mission control, through the agency’s Near Space Network, which consists of a constellation of satellites in Earth orbit.
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) fill out their ballots.
The ballots are then encrypted and uploaded to the space station’s onboard computer. They are then sent to the NASA ground center.
From there, the ballots are transmitted to NASA’s Mission Control Center, which electronically delivers them to the clerks of the polling places where the astronauts reside for completion.
NASA also stated that astronauts’ ballots are “encrypted and accessible only to the astronaut and the clerk” to preserve the integrity of the vote.
This process is also available to NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who launched to the ISS in June aboard a Boeing Starliner spacecraft but are now expected to remain in space until 2025 due to complications with the space capsule.
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