Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they plan to cast their 2024 votes from outer space

Two NASA astronauts that are stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) until February announced on Friday that they will still be voting in the upcoming presidential election.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who were only expected to be on the station for a week, have been stranded in space since June because of safety issues related to their capsule. Now they cannot return home until after the November election.

Wilmore claimed that voting is still important to him as an American, and astronauts have actually been voting from space since 1997, according to NBC News.

“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore, said on a call with reporters. “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.”

Election officials in Texas often work with NASA to help the astronauts vote in a secure manner. On election day, astronauts are sent a PDF that contains a clickable box next to the candidates. The astronaut fills the form out electronically, which is then returned to NASA. The ballots are password protected to ensure secrecy. 

“Before sending the astronauts their ballot, it is transferred to a fillable document so that they can make their selections, save it, and send it back," Rosio Torres-Segura, a spokesperson for the Harris County clerk, told the outlet. "A test ballot with a unique password is always sent first. Once they vote on their live ballot, it is returned, printed, and processed with other ballots.”

Williams told reporters on the phone call that she was also looking forward to voting from space, which only a handful of astronauts have done so far. David Wolf was the first astronaut to vote from space in 1997, and Kate Rubin voted from space in 2020.

“It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” Williams said.

Neither astronaut indicated which candidate they would vote for. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.