US Election 2024: How NASA Astronauts Vote from Space Aboard ISS

Elections are brewing up in the US and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is set to vote from space. Say, what? Is it even possible? The answer is yes, and this is not the first time that NASA astronauts will be voting from space.

The voting process for astronauts in space has been in place since 1997 when the Texas Legislature passed a bill allowing NASA astronauts to cast ballots from orbit.

The voting process takes place through NASA's Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program, in which votes are cast in space, and travel through NASA's Near Space Network (NSN) to Earth.

Sunita Williams will first complete her Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot. Once received, Williams will fill out the electronic ballot on the ISS computer system.

Williams' completed ballot will travel through NASA's NSN, utilising the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The vote will be transmitted to a ground antenna at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.

The ballot then will be securely transferred to the Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston. From Houston, the encrypted ballot will be sent to the appropriate county clerk for processing.

Only Williams and the county clerk will have access to the ballot to ensure the integrity of the vote.

Williams will join a select group of space-based voters, but David Wolf was the first American to vote from space while aboard the Mir Space Station. Kate Rubins most recently voted from the ISS during the 2020 elections.