NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins To Cast Her Vote For US Elections 2020 From Space

NASA astronaut Kathleen Hallisey "Kate" Rubins is planning to cast her vote from the International Space Station, in the upcoming US elections. According to reports, she is currently residing just outside Moscow in Star City, Russia. Rubins is preparing for a mid-October launch, for a six months stay at the ISS, along with two other cosmonauts.

Kate Rubins told the press that many astronauts think that it is important to cast their vote even from the space and she is one of them. She also said that if they can vote from more than 200 miles above Earth than "the folks can do it from the ground too." According to Rubins, "It is critical to participate in the democracy. We consider it an honour to be able to vote from space."

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Since the state of Texas allows them to vote from the space using a secure electronic ballot,  many US astronauts live in Houston, sugget news reports. Mission Control forwards the ballot to the space station, the astronauts cast their votes and then it relays the completed ballot back to the county clerk. Many NASA astronauts have cast their vote from the space in the past. Kate Rubins and her fellow astronaut Shane Kimbrough also cast their ballots from the International Space Station in the 2016 presidential election.

During her current stay at ISS, Rubins will be conducting research at the space station’s Cold Atom Lab and work on cardiovascular research. She will also be celebrating the 20th anniversary of continuous human presence on the space station, and welcome the crew of the second SpaceX commercial crew mission, which is expected to arrive in late October.

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 Kathleen Hallisey "Kate" Rubins' Work At NASA

On July 7, 2016, Runins became the 60th woman to fly in space. The 41-year-old was a crew member of Expedition 48 and Expedition 49 of the International Space Station as well. 

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On October 14, 2020, Kate is scheduled to go on her second mission with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov aboard Soyuz MS-17. Their return is scheduled for April 2021.

Image Credit: The Week

Khushi Gupta is an intern with SheThePeople.TV.