National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) can cast their votes in US general elections with the help of absentee ballots or early voting in coordination with the county clerk’s office at their residential place.
The voting from space has been made possible through NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Programme.
Moreover, votes cast in space travel through the agency’s Near Space Network, which is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland. This process is similar to most data transmitted between the space station and the Mission Control Centre at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
Notably, the network connects missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth with communications and navigation services, including the space station, reported NASA.
Astronauts may fill out a Federal Post Card Application to request an absentee ballot just like any other American away from home.
When an astronaut fills out an electronic ballot aboard the orbiting laboratory, the document flows through NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the agency’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
NASA transfers the ballot from New Mexico to the Mission Control Centre at NASA Johnson and then on to the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot. Additionally, the ballot is encrypted and accessible only by the astronaut and the clerk to preserve the vote’s integrity.
