NASA astronauts to cast votes from space on election day

American astronauts from NASA will be on the International Space Station (ISS) on 5 November, Election Day, and will cast their votes via postal ballots, CNN reported. They will float 320 kilometres above the nearest polling station that day.

Among those casting their votes will be astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, who arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. They were originally scheduled to return to Earth after seven days. Due to technical issues with the capsule, NASA decided to remain in space until February 2025.

As reported by CNN on Thursday, thanks to a law in Texas in place since 1997, "Butch" and "Suni" will be able to fulfil their civic duty despite being in low Earth orbit at the time of the election. The first American astronaut to vote in this manner was David Wolf during a four-month mission on the Russian space station Mir.

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 – said Williams to reporters at a press conference held on the space station on 13 September.

On Election Day, the astronauts will fill out electronic postal ballots. They will be delivered to Earth using the same method that transmits most data between the ISS and mission control in Las Cruces, New Mexico: NASA's Near Space Network, a constellation of satellites that communicates with ground-based antennas.

The presidential election in the United States will take place on Tuesday, 5 November. Initially, it was to be a showdown between current US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. However, after a televised debate and pressures from many sides, Biden decided to withdraw from the race for the White House, endorsing Kamala Harris.

It seems that every vote will be crucial. The latest poll published by the "New York Times" indicates that Trump and Harris each enjoy the support of 47% of respondents.