NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, who will be aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on the day of the US presidential elections, will cast her vote from space.
Aboard the ISS, missions can last for over six months, and American astronauts have been able to cast their vote via a special absentee ballot system.
The rule states that a person who is on a space flight during the early voting period or on election day can vote by this method provided they apply by a Federal Postcard Application (FPCA).
A day before US Election Day, an encrypted electronic ballot is uplinked to the astronauts, who then use a set of unique credentials that are sent to them individually by e-mail.
In this way, they can access their ballots and after casting their vote, they downlink them back to Earth to the county clerk’s office.
