US Presidential Elections: NASA Astronaut Kathleen Rubins Votes From Space

Kathleen Rubins, an American astronaut, cast her vote in this year’s US Presidential Election from the International Space Station that is around 250 miles above the earth. The 42-year-old used NASA’s Space Communications and Navigations (SCaN) infrastructure to exercise her franchise, Times of India reports.

Rubins’ ballot travelled through NASA’s Space Network that is controlled by the federal agency’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland. Aboard in the orbiting laboratory, the microbiologist lodged her unique electronic absentee ballot.

The document was carried to a ground antenna at the White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico via a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. Then, the ballot from New Mexico was transferred by NASA to its Johnson Space Centre situated in Houstan, Texas.

From there, the encrypted ballot is passed on to the concerned county clerk. The Texas Legislature had passed a bill in 1997 that permitted NASA astronauts to vote from space. Renowned American astronaut Sunita Williams recently mentioned that the secure communication network ensured that an individual’s ballot is not hampered.

In 1997, David Alexnader Wolf had become the first American to cast a vote from space as he made use of this provision from the Mir Space Station.