NASA’s Starliner astronauts will vote in the November election from space. Here’s how that works

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may be on board the International Space Station for an extended stay after issues with Boeing Starliner, but that will not stop them from voting in the November election.

Wilmore told reporters Friday that he and Williams had requested vote-by-mail ballots for the election that day and they should have them in a couple of weeks.

“That’s a very important role we all play as citizens is to be included in those elections and NASA makes it easy for us to do that, so we’re all excited for that opportunity,” Wilmore said.

“Looking forward to voting from space which is pretty cool,” Williams added.

According to NASA, astronauts have been able to vote from space since 1997. Texas, which is home to many NASA astronauts, passed a law that allowed people in space to vote during the early voting period.

NASA makes this possible using a special electronic ballot. It’s transmitted to the ISS via NASA’s Near Space Network. Then the astronaut fills it out and it’s transmitted back to Earth through a data relay satellite to the White Sands Complex in New Mexico. From there, it’s transferred to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and then to a county clerk who is assigned to cast the ballot.

Throughout the process, the ballot is encrypted. NASA says only the voting astronaut and the clerk know how the astronaut voted.

The first NASA astronaut to vote from space was David Wolf in 1997, on board the old Mir Space Station.

Wilmore and Williams are the first astronauts to ride in a Boeing Starliner spacecraft to the ISS, which launched in June. However, issues with the spacecraft led to NASA and Boeing bringing Starliner back to Earth on its own and leaving Wilmore and Williams on the space station. The pair are expected to come home next year on a crewed SpaceX Dragon capsule.

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