Atlanta (AP) – NASA astronaut Kate Rubins told the Associated Press on Friday that she plans to cast her next vote from space – more than 200 miles from Earth.
Rubins is just outside Moscow in Russia’s Star City, preparing for a mid-October launch and a six-month stay on the International Space Station.
“I think it’s really important for everyone to vote,” Rubins said. “If we can do it from space, I believe people can do it from the ground as well.”
Most U.S. astronauts live in Houston. Texas law allows them to vote from space using a secure electronic ballot. Mission Control forwards the ballot to the space station and returns the completed ballot to the county clerk.
“It’s important to participate in our democracy,” Rubins said. “We consider it an honor to be able to vote from space.”
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In space – CT October :: (use only edit) In this handout photo provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was photographed during his spacewalk on the International Space Station (ISS) on October 7. . 2014. Gerst returned to Earth on November 10, 2014, after spending six months on the International Space Station completing a comprehensive scientific program known as the ‘Blue Dot’ mission, as shown in a photograph taken by Warser in space. Investigation from six billion kilometers away). (Photo by Getty Images by Alexander Gerst / ESA)
ZEZKAZGAZAN, Kazakhstan – March 12: (This handout, provided by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), shows the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft landing with NASA Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore. Alexander Samokutayev and Elena Serova of Rozkosmos near the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan on March 12, 2015. NASA astronauts Wilmore and Russian cosmonauts Samokutayev and Serova are returning to the International Space Station after about six months. Images by Bill Engels / Photo by NASA)
Star City, Russia – March 5: In this handout from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA, (L to R) NASA astronaut Scott Kelly Gagarin appears inside the Soyuz simulator at the Cosmonat Training Center (GCTC) in March. 5, 2015 in Star City, Russia. The trio are preparing to launch the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 28, 2015. As a one-year crew, Kelly and Corninko will return to Earth at the Soyuz TMA. In March 2016 -18 m. (Photo by Getty Images / Bill Ingles / by NASA)
VOL PS PS ISLAND, VA – CT October 28: In this handout, provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a biblical science corporation enters the rocket, along with the Cygnus spacecraft, into the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Is. On October 28, 2014, at the NASA Wall Street Flight Facility on the Island of Virginia. William Gerstenmeyer, associate director of NASA’s Directorate of Human Exploration and rations operations, and Michael Sufferdini, NASA’s International Space Station program manager, also attended the press conference by phone. Cygnus was going to render with the space station. The Antarctic rocket took off to launch its third reconnaissance mission to the International Space Station, but encountered a catastrophic discrepancy soon after the lift took off at 6:22 p.m. (Photo by Joel Kowski / Getty Images / by NASA)
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NASA astronauts have voted from space before. Rubins and Shane Kimbro cast their ballots from the International Space Station.
Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space, plans to work on a blood vessel experiment and conduct research using the space station’s Cold Atom Lab.
While it is there, it will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its continued human presence on the space station, and the crew of the second SpaceX commercial crew mission, is expected to arrive in late October.
