Hyderabad: Sunita Williams and her fellow countrymen aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will be exercising their right to vote for the 2024 US Presidential elections from outside the planet. Indian-origin space veteran Williams and her Boeing Starliner partner Butch Wilmore are stuck in space untill February and will be casting their votes from the ISS alongside other American astronauts, courtesy of a plan instituted by NASA that allows on-duty astronauts to participate in this civic duty.
Voting from space
NASA enables astronauts to vote from space in a process similar to absentee voting. Since they can’t visit a polling station, astronauts complete an electronic ballot aboard the space station. This ballot is securely transmitted over 1.2 million miles, moving from the station to NASA's Mission Control Center in Texas.
To begin, astronauts submit a Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot. They then fill out an electronic ballot, which is sent through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to an antenna in New Mexico.
Next, NASA relays the ballot to Mission Control, which then sends it to the astronaut's local county clerk, who officially casts the vote. To ensure privacy, the ballot is encrypted and only viewable by the astronaut and the clerk handling it.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore share enthusiasm
Sunita Williams was supposed to be back before the US Presidential elections. However, since the mission was extended in June 2024 due to safety protocols, Williams and Butch Wilmore are stuck until at least February 2025. Back in September, both astronauts announced their intention to vote in the US elections from space.
During the conference, Williams expressed her excitement about voting from space and said, "It’s an important duty we have as citizens, and I’m looking forward to voting from space, which is pretty cool."
Her colleague Wilmore also shared his excitement about voting, emphasising the importance of civic participation. "It’s a crucial role we all have as citizens to be part of elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that," he said.
To recall, David Wolf was the first astronaut to vote from space in 1997 from the now-defunct Mir Space Station. Since then, multiple astronauts have cast their votes from space. The latest to vote from outside the planet is Kate Rubins, who cast her vote from the ISS during the 2020 US elections.
