An American astronaut has cast her vote in the 2020 Presidential Election all the way from the International Space Station.
According to a recent post on one of NASA's official Twitter accounts, astronaut Kate Rubins cast her vote in the US elections on Thursday, October 22, despite currently being in orbit more than 253 miles away from the surface of the Earth.
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In a post made on the account NASA_Astronauts, the space agency shared an image of Rubins with its one million followers, which was captioned: "From the International Space Station: I voted today [sic]"
The image in question shows Rubins floating in a zero-gravity environment, her blonde hair cascading around her face, hovering in front of a white enclosure with a sign reading: "ISS voting booth."
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Back on October 14, Rubins commented on the initiative when she told France24:
"We consider it an honor to be able to vote from space. If we can do it from space then I believe folks can do it from the ground too."
According to NASA, the secure electronic ballot was generated by a clerk's office in Harris County, which is the home of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in Texas.
The ballot was sent to the ISS via email, which Rubins later filled out, downlinked, and delivered back to the clerk's office, all while still on the International Space Station.
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France24 adds that another three American astronauts were also expected to vote from the space station in addition to Rubins, but their October 31 trip has since been delayed.
According to NASA's official biography of her career, Rubins was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 2009 and completed her first spaceflight on Expedition 48/49, where she spent a total of 115 days in space and also became the first person to sequence DNA in space.
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Rubins is currently serving aboard the International Space Station for a six-month mission as a flight engineer for the Expedition 63/64 crew, where she’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of continuous human presence on the space station, and welcome the crew of the second SpaceX mission.