Space
NASA Astronaut Voted From Space
Brooke James
First Posted: Nov 08, 2016 02:51 AM EST
Different ads have been reminding people to vote over the past few months, and it seems that the message reached past the skies and into space: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is currently living on board the International Space Station, filed his ballot for the presidential election.
NASA shared with Yahoo! News that Kimbrough filed his ballot for the election from the space station sometime over the last few days. Kate Rubins, who returned to Earth last week also submitted her ballot before her return. Both astronauts, who are registered as residents of Houston (also the place where the Johnson Space Center is located), listed their addresses as "low-orbit Earth," which is where their spacecraft is circling.
"There are some fantastic folks on the ground that got me an absentee ballot before I launched. It's incredibly important for us to vote in all of the elections." Rubins said in an interview as cited by The Huffington Post.
However, for astronauts who will be in space during election day, the voting process actually starts a year before launch. According to CNN, it is at that time that they are able to select which elections they want to participate in. Then, six months before the election, they are provided with the form "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request -- Federal Post Card Application."
The first American astronaut to vote from space was David Wolf, who was on board the Russian Mir Space Station in 1997, for a local election, as noted by NPR. Thanks to the Texas law that was passed the same year Wolf voted, both astronauts were able to vote for this year's presidential elections while in orbit.
Space voting has its pros and cons: Astronauts have the benefit of not having to wait in line to cast their votes - however, they won't get their highly coveted "I voted" stickers from up in space.
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First Posted: Nov 08, 2016 02:51 AM EST
Different ads have been reminding people to vote over the past few months, and it seems that the message reached past the skies and into space: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is currently living on board the International Space Station, filed his ballot for the presidential election.
NASA shared with Yahoo! News that Kimbrough filed his ballot for the election from the space station sometime over the last few days. Kate Rubins, who returned to Earth last week also submitted her ballot before her return. Both astronauts, who are registered as residents of Houston (also the place where the Johnson Space Center is located), listed their addresses as "low-orbit Earth," which is where their spacecraft is circling.
"There are some fantastic folks on the ground that got me an absentee ballot before I launched. It's incredibly important for us to vote in all of the elections." Rubins said in an interview as cited by The Huffington Post.
However, for astronauts who will be in space during election day, the voting process actually starts a year before launch. According to CNN, it is at that time that they are able to select which elections they want to participate in. Then, six months before the election, they are provided with the form "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request -- Federal Post Card Application."
The first American astronaut to vote from space was David Wolf, who was on board the Russian Mir Space Station in 1997, for a local election, as noted by NPR. Thanks to the Texas law that was passed the same year Wolf voted, both astronauts were able to vote for this year's presidential elections while in orbit.
Space voting has its pros and cons: Astronauts have the benefit of not having to wait in line to cast their votes - however, they won't get their highly coveted "I voted" stickers from up in space.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone