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NASA astronaut casts her ballot from space station

HOUSTON (AP)  — NASA astronaut Kate Rubins cast her ballot from space on Thursday – more than 200 miles above Earth.

Rubins is currently aboard the International Space Station for a six-month stay.


Most U.S. astronauts live in Houston, Texas. State law allows them to vote from space using a secure electronic ballot.

Mission Control forwards the ballot to the space station and relays the completed ballot back to the county clerk.

NASA astronauts have voted from space before. Rubins and Shane Kimbrough cast their votes from the International Space Station.

Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space, plans to work on a cardiovascular experiment and conduct research using the space station’s Cold Atom Lab.

She’ll celebrate the 20th anniversary of continuous human presence on the space station, and welcome the crew of the second SpaceX commercial crew mission, expected to arrive in late October.