Even these astronauts have a voting plan.
Write-In Space
The two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule plan to cast their vote in the November presidential elections, showing that Earth-bound American citizens have no good excuse for not voting.
“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,” said NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, as reported by NBC News, during a conversation with reporters on Friday.
Her colleague and fellow Starliner passenger Butch Wilmore echoed those remarks.
“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” said Wilmore. “It’s a very important role that we play as citizen including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that.”
NASA sends a ballot prepared by election officials to the astronauts consisting of a PDF document that’s password protected and has boxes for them to check off in order to make their choices.
Having astronauts vote from space has been done before, according to NBC News, but there must have been last minute maneuvering to send ballots up to these astronauts, who unexpectedly saw their eight-day test flight extended until February of next year.
Orbit Poll
The development and production of Boeing’s Starliner have been plagued with numerous problems, from delays to software issues, well before its first launch with a crew to the space station. It also costs twice as much as rival SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which NASA has tapped to rescue the stranded astronauts.
NASA officials were leery of letting astronauts take the Starliner for a return home because the capsule had issues with its thrusters before it docked with the station.
The Starliner finally made it home, empty handed, earlier this month — though it experienced additional thruster issues on its way down, showing that NASA was right to be cautious.
Further investigations — and perhaps hearings — will hopefully cast light on what went terribly wrong with a project that ate up so many tax dollars.
More on astronauts: Stranded Astronaut Says He Just Wasn’t “Comfortable” Getting “Back in the Starliner” After Safety Issues
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