Sunita Williams terms space her “happy place”; NASA astronauts eager to vote from space in US elections

NASA Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore expressed their desire to vote in the upcoming US presidential elections in November, from the International Space Station, as their stay in the space has got extended at least till February 2025.

Williams and Wilmore participated in a press conference on Friday above 250 miles above Earth from the International Space Station, where the two astronauts had been since June, reported the New York Post. The press conference came a week after the Starliner returned to earth.

The pair had launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station on June 6.

A decision was made to return Starliner to Earth without its crew and the spacecraft successfully returned on September 6 after more than three months in space. It made a safe landing at White Sands Space Harbour in New Mexico.

Both the astronauts will remain on the international space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew and return home in February 2025 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

The astronauts said they have requested for a ballot, terming voting as an “important role” played by citizens.

“I sent down my request for a ballot today, as a matter of fact, and they should get it to us in a couple of weeks,” Wilmore said. “It’s a very important role that we all play as citizens to be included in those elections and NASA makes it very easy for us to do that. We’re excited for that opportunity.”

Notably, astronauts have been voting from space since 1997, when the Texas legislature passed a bill allowing NASA employees to vote from space, the 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.

Wilmore said that the extended stay was “trying at times,” and there were some tough times all the way through.

Sunita Williams said the transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had previous stints there.

“This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said. “A test flight means that we’re probably going to find some stuff.”

“We’ve done as much as we can to look at the envelope that we’re going to operate in but this is the first time we’ve had humans in space in Starliner and we did find stuff and we made the right decisions and we’re here and that’s how things go in this business,” she further added.

When asked if they were let down by their new reality, Wilmore said “absolutely not,” adding that dealing with difficult situations builds a great deal of fortitude and character.

“We are tasked and we learn and we train to handle all types of situations. And this is not just at NASA, this is something Suni and I have done for an entire career,” Wilmore said.

“Whatever it is, we’re going to do the very best job we can do every single day because that’s what the folks who do this type of job have to do,” he added.

Williams and Wilmore are living on the ISS with seven other astronauts, New York Times reported.