Stranded on the International Space Station through February, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore plan to vote in the November 5 US presidential election from space.
“It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and (I am) looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” Williams, who is of Indian origin, said on a call with reporters on Friday afternoon.
Williams, 58, and Wilmore, 61, participated in a press conference on Friday from the International Space Station (ISS), which has been their home since June.
Their Boeing Starliner spacecraft ran into several problems midflight and could not bring them home from a planned 8-day voyage.
“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore said.
“It’s a very important role that we play as citizens including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that,” he said.
They, however, did not indicate which presidential candidate — either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris — would get their vote.
American astronauts have been voting from space since 1997 when the Texas legislature passed a bill allowing NASA employees to vote from space, New York Post reported.
That year, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from space on the Mir Space Station.
In 2020, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins also performed her civic duty from space on the ISS.
Election officials in Harris County, Texas — where NASA’s Johnson Space Station is located — told NBC News that they work with NASA to send astronauts a PDF with clickable boxes to make their choices.
