<p>Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, currently in space floating around in zero-gravity, voted for US presidential polls by absentee ballot.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Sunita, along with flight engineer Kevin Ford, exercised her franchise in July while stationed in Russia even before heading up to the station aboard Soyuz ships launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome.<br /><br />The other four members of the station's current Expedition 33 crew are all non-Americans -- three Russian cosmonauts and one Japanese space ace.<br /><br />For several years now, adventurers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been able to cast their votes via encrypted e-mail.<br /><br />Voting facility is available to those in the ISS with the help of to a digital ballot provided by Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.<br /><br />The provision was envisaged by a 1997 Bill passed in the state of Texas, home to most of the NASA astronauts.<br /><br />The Bill allowed registered voters to digitally beam their ballots back down to Houston.<br />After filling out the form, "they send it back to Mission Control," says NASA spokesman Jay Bolden.<br /><br />"It's a secure ballot that is then sent directly to the voting authorities," says Bolden.<br />Various US astronauts have cast their ballots from orbit in various past elections, and NASA has a procedure for such cases, brought in at the behest of Texan politicians keen to capitalise on publicity around space-going voters likely to be resident in the Houston area.<br /><br />When the bill was passed, David Wolf, then aboard Russia's Mir space station became the first astronaut to file his vote from space via encrypted email.<br />Wolf, however, was voting in a local election.<br /><br />In October 2004 that Leroy Chiao, then stuck aboard the ISS, became the first far-flung astronaut to vote for a president.<br /><br />Meanwhile, one former US astronaut will also be participating in the US elections.<br />Former space shuttle mission specialist Jose Hernandez is hoping to be elected as a Democrat congressman for California's 10th district.<br /><br />Hernandez had made one spaceflight in 2009 aboard shuttle Discovery, a routine support mission to the ISS.</p>
<p>Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, currently in space floating around in zero-gravity, voted for US presidential polls by absentee ballot.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Sunita, along with flight engineer Kevin Ford, exercised her franchise in July while stationed in Russia even before heading up to the station aboard Soyuz ships launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome.<br /><br />The other four members of the station's current Expedition 33 crew are all non-Americans -- three Russian cosmonauts and one Japanese space ace.<br /><br />For several years now, adventurers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have been able to cast their votes via encrypted e-mail.<br /><br />Voting facility is available to those in the ISS with the help of to a digital ballot provided by Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.<br /><br />The provision was envisaged by a 1997 Bill passed in the state of Texas, home to most of the NASA astronauts.<br /><br />The Bill allowed registered voters to digitally beam their ballots back down to Houston.<br />After filling out the form, "they send it back to Mission Control," says NASA spokesman Jay Bolden.<br /><br />"It's a secure ballot that is then sent directly to the voting authorities," says Bolden.<br />Various US astronauts have cast their ballots from orbit in various past elections, and NASA has a procedure for such cases, brought in at the behest of Texan politicians keen to capitalise on publicity around space-going voters likely to be resident in the Houston area.<br /><br />When the bill was passed, David Wolf, then aboard Russia's Mir space station became the first astronaut to file his vote from space via encrypted email.<br />Wolf, however, was voting in a local election.<br /><br />In October 2004 that Leroy Chiao, then stuck aboard the ISS, became the first far-flung astronaut to vote for a president.<br /><br />Meanwhile, one former US astronaut will also be participating in the US elections.<br />Former space shuttle mission specialist Jose Hernandez is hoping to be elected as a Democrat congressman for California's 10th district.<br /><br />Hernandez had made one spaceflight in 2009 aboard shuttle Discovery, a routine support mission to the ISS.</p>