Two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, due to technical problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, will return as early as February 2025. However, the 8-month delay in space will not prevent them from voting in the U.S. presidential election in November. This highlights that Americans will be able to fulfill their civic duty even in space.
“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,” NASA astronaut Sunita Williams said while speaking to reporters. Her colleague Butch Wilmore added that he recently submitted his request to vote and emphasized the importance of getting involved in the election. NASA provides astronauts the ability to vote secretly with a password-protected PDF ballot they receive from election officials.
“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. 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,” explained Rosio Torres-Segura, spokesperson for the county clerk.
The astronauts had previously voted from space, but this time the situation was complicated. Their eight-day test flight was unexpectedly extended until February next year due to technical problems with the Starliner. The development of this capsule took longer than planned and was accompanied by many difficulties, including software problems. The Starliner was twice as expensive as SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which NASA has already used to rescue astronauts.
NASA expressed concerns about the crew returning to Starliner due to engine problems during docking. As a result, the capsule was returned to Earth without a crew, and additional engine problems occurred during its descent, confirming that NASA’s cautious approach was correct.
Further investigations will help find out exactly what mistakes were made during this costly project.
We previously reported on whether a former astronaut could help defeat Donald Trump.
According to nbcnews.com
