How Stranded Starliner Astronauts Will Cast U.S. Election Ballots from Space

The forthcoming U.S. election is anticipated to be closely contested, meaning every vote will be significant — including those cast from space.

NASA has announced that all astronauts aboard the International Space Station will have the opportunity to vote in November’s election while orbiting the Earth, including the two-person crew currently stranded there after arriving on Boeing’s defective Starliner capsule in June.

Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected to return to Earth next February on a SpaceX spacecraft scheduled to launch this month. Although this means they will miss the chance to vote in person, NASA assures that the special technology in place for over 20 years will still enable them to fulfil their civic duty.

“All U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming general election,” a spokesperson informed Global News.

“The process will be the same for any other crew member, in co-ordination with the county clerk office of the county they reside in.”

Voting from space dates back to 1997, when Texas passed legislation to accommodate astronauts on long-duration space flights, a relatively new phenomenon at that time. Most astronauts reside in Texas to be near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In that same year, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to cast a vote from space while on Russia’s Mir Space Station.

Since the ISS was launched into orbit in 1998, American astronauts have been able to vote while onboard.

NASA states that the process has essentially remained unchanged.

Initially, an encrypted electronic absentee ballot is transmitted to the astronauts via NASA’s space communications network — the same network used for crew communications with family members and data exchange with mission control in Houston.

Astronauts then use unique credentials sent via email to access their ballot, cast their vote, and transmit it back to Earth.

NASA explains that the document is routed by satellite through its White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico — a site typically used for rocket engine testing and handling potentially hazardous materials from space — before reaching the Johnson Space Center.

The ballot is then forwarded to the county clerk corresponding to each astronaut’s address on Earth. The clerk is the only other person who can access the encrypted document.

This process is similar to how Americans abroad vote absentee, typically via email or internet download.

However, the National Air and Space Museum notes that astronauts voting from space will list their current address as “low-Earth orbit.”