NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will cast their ballots in the 2024 Presidential Election from space. The two astronauts are participating in early voting because they are in orbit on the International Space Station more than 200 miles above the nearest polling place. “It’s a very important duty that we have as citizens, and I’m looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool,” said Williamsduring a news conference.

To vote from space, an astronaut requests an electronic absentee ballot. Then, an encrypted ballot is uploaded into the on-board email system. The astronaut electronically fills out the ballot, and sends it back to Earth through a relay satellite to the NASA White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Next, the ballot is transferred to Mission Control in Houston, Texas and then to the appropriate county clerk’s office. “I sent down my request for a ballot today,” Wilmore told reporters on Sept. 13. “NASA makes it very easy for us to do that.”

NASA astronauts have voted from space since 1997 when the Texas Legislature enacted voting provisions for “a person who meets the eligibility requirements of a voter... but who will be on a space flight during the early-voting period and on election day.” David Wolf became the first U.S. astronaut to vote from space during a four-month mission aboard Russia’s Mir Space Station in 1997.

The ballots that Williams and Wilmore send to Earth for the Nov. 5 election will arrive several months before they return themselves. The two astronauts are scheduled to fly back on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft in Feb. 2025.