Flying votes from space- million miles away from Planet Earth: How Sunita Willams & Team NASA vote across orbits!

By Prasanta Ku. Dash

Washington, Nov 6: Unlike ballot paper & EVM voting devices, the contemporary ways to elect public representatives by citizens, the US astronauts aboard the International Space Station voted for their deemed candidates who were in the fray in the US Presidential Election on Tuesday.

Flying votes from space, million miles far off the planet earth, showered at the nearest polling station which was an unprecedented civic experience for the astronauts Sunita Willams and her Team stranded in the International Space Station (ISS).

They all casted their ballots, who had earlier sought legal permission from the  US Electoral  Authorities through filling out Federal Postcard Applications (FPCAs), a process designed for U.S. citizens and military personnel voting from abroad, including outer space. 

Despite being stranded on the International Space Station since June, Wilmore was keen to exercise his civic franchise about voting in the 2024 Presidential Elections.

Currently, four Americans are orbiting the Earth, including SpaceX astronaut Nick Hague, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams.

Despite being about 250 miles in the microgravity, above the nearest polling place, the U.S. astronauts aboard the International Space Station were able to cast their votes in favor of their deemed Presidential candidates from space by using NASA's Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) network, which allowed the astronauts to transmit their encrypted votes back to Earth securely.

“The Near Space Network allowed the astronauts on the International Space Station to take part in the democratic voting process through their oral votes. However, their opinion poll were legible and clearly heard.” Deputy Associate Administrator for SCaN, Kevin Coggins, told the US media in one of its statement.

NASA said that Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Pettit have indicated that they plan to vote based upon it the electoral officers complied with all essential procedures for the flying votes.

 “It is up to the crew members to disclose whether they have voted,” a NASA spokesperson told adding that “Wilmore stated Tuesday morning he had voted early.”

Once completed aboard the ISS, the electronic ballot was securely transmitted via NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System to a ground antenna at the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.

It was then linked to Mission Control at Johnson Space Center and forwarded to the astronauts’ appropriate county clerk for casting the ballots. The ballot was encrypted, ensuring only the astronaut and the concerned electoral clerks had an end-to-end access.

"It's a very important role that we all utilized our mandates properly as US citizens, to be included in those elections, and NASA made it very easy for us to do that," Wilmore said during a press conference.

Beyond enabling astronauts to participate in elections, SCaN manages various essential communication networks for NASA, including the Deep Space Network, Near Earth Network, and Space Network. 

According to NASA, the Space Communication and Navigation network connects missions within 1.2 million miles of Earth, far enough to reach Mars, around 92 million miles away. These networks not only support astronauts but also play a critical role in advancing NASA’s broader missions.

“NASA's Space Communication and Navigation space communication networks are key to bringing down science and exploration data, and our program also plays an essential role in connecting astronauts to their families, the agency’s Mission Control Center, and more,” Coggins said.

NASA is also looking to extend its communication capabilities even further into deep space, having launched the Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC) project, which uses lasers to send data as far as 2.2 billion miles away.