Here’s how the stranded American astronauts will vote from space | Space

(NewsNation) — Call it the ultimate absentee ballot. Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the Boeing Starliner astronauts whose eight-day mission aboard the International Space Station will now stretch to at least seven months, will cast their ballots from space.

It’s nothing new for NASA, which has accommodated orbiting absentee ballots for 27 years. That’s when Texas passed a law permitting the practice. Since NASA is headquartered in Houston, nearly every American astronaut is a Texas resident.

The difference this time is that Wilmore and Williams didn’t expect to be in orbit on Election Day. Thruster and helium leak issues with their Starliner capsule, combined with the logistics of the regular ISS crew rotations, will keep the pair in space until February.

The Starliner capsule, minus its crew, returned to Earth earlier this month.

SpaceX Crew-9 launch delayed until Sept. 26

“I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore said on a call with reporters earlier this month. “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.”

Election officials in Harris County, Texas said they work with NASA to send astronauts a PDF with clickable…