Whereas thousands and thousands of Individuals head to polling cubicles to solid their votes for the 2024 US elections, a number of of their fellow countrymen may even be exercising their proper to vote however not on this planet.
To make sure that no person is left behind, NASA instituted a plan that permits astronauts to carry out their civic responsibility even when they’re in house. Stories counsel that 4 Individuals are presently in house who would wish to train their voting rights, together with the 2 Boeing Starliner astronauts — Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore — who’re caught in house until February.
Indian-origin house veteran Williams had shared her enthusiasm for voting in house in a convention in September after she was initially presupposed to be again to Earth in time to vote in particular person. “It is an important responsibility that we’ve as residents, and [I am] wanting ahead to having the ability to vote from house, which is fairly cool,” she mentioned.
Her companion Wilmore mentioned he was excited to train his voting rights. “It is an important position that all of us play as residents, to be included in these elections, and NASA makes it very simple for us to try this,” he mentioned.
How astronauts vote in house
NASA facilitates a voting course of that’s much like absentee ballots which is a vote solid by somebody who’s unable to go to the allotted polling station. The votes are transmitted between the house station and the Mission Management Heart at NASA’s Johnson House Heart in Texas throughout 1.2 million miles.
Astronauts fill out a Federal Submit Card Software to request an absentee poll and fill an digital poll in house. The doc is then despatched via NASA’s Monitoring and Information Relay Satellite tv for pc System to an enormous antenna on the company’s check facility in New Mexico.
From there, NASA transmits the poll to the Mission Management Heart which passes on the vote to the county clerk answerable for casting the poll. To make sure privateness, the poll is encrypted and solely accessible to the astronaut and the clerk casting the poll.
David Wolf was the primary to vote in house in 1997 and Kate Rubins was the final astronaut to vote from the Worldwide House Station through the 2020 US elections, based on NASA.
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