Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore plan to vote in 2024 US election from space

Washington: Stranded on the International Space Station through February, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore plan to vote in the November 5 US presidential election from space.

“It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens and (I am) looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” Williams, who is of Indian origin, said on a call with reporters on Friday afternoon.

Williams, 58, and Wilmore, 61, participated in a press conference on Friday from the International Space Station (ISS), which has been their home since June.

Their Boeing Starliner spacecraft ran into several problems midflight and could not bring them home from a planned 8-day voyage.

“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore said.

“It’s a very important role that we play as citizens including those elections, and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that," he said.

They, however, did not indicate which presidential candidate — either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris — would get their vote.

American astronauts have been voting from space since 1997 when the Texas legislature passed a bill allowing NASA employees to vote from space, New York Post reported.

That year, NASA astronaut David Wolf became the first American to vote from space on the Mir Space Station.

In 2020, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins also performed her civic duty from space on the ISS.

Election officials in Harris County, Texas — where NASA’s Johnson Space Station is located — told NBC News that they work with NASA to send astronauts a PDF with clickable boxes to make their choices.

The PDF is password-protected to ensure a secret ballot.

Friday’s press conference came exactly one week after the Starliner returned to Earth — without its crew — to make room on the space station for SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is now due to bring the two astronauts home in February.

Williams and Wilmore are living on the ISS with seven other astronauts.

They said they feel "grateful" to spend more time in space, despite difficulties.

When asked if it was difficult to see the Starliner leave without them, William said they were tasked with ensuring it left the ISS safely.

"We were watching our spaceship fly away," she said.

Williams said as she and Wilmore used to work in the Navy, they are "not surprised when deployments get changed".

"It's risky and that's how it goes in the business," she said.

When asked if they feel let down by NASA and Boeing, Butch said, "Absolutely not." Pointing to William's t-shirt with a NASA logo, he said: "That represents something that we stand for as an agency - we go beyond, we do things that are out of the ordinary." "This is not easy," he added.

He said that 90 per cent of their astronaut training is about preparing for "the unexpected".

Williams, who has just been named the commander of the International Space Station, said she was in good spirits.

"We're here with our friends, we've got a ride home," she said, adding that she is looking forward to the next couple of months on board the ISS.