The United States of America (USA) presidential election had never been out of this world, but an American astronaut, who is literally out of this world has already taken his pick.
The lone American astronaut in outer space has cast his vote for the United States presidential election.
Shane Kimbrough, who rode the Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station (ISS), became the latest astronaut to join in a long tradition of voting while floating above the Earth, inside the ISS which is in orbit.
Kim started his four-month mission at the research outpost, along with a couple of Russian cosmonauts, last October 19.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA said in a statement: “Current space station resident astronaut Shane Kimbrough is the most recent astronaut to take advantage of the opportunity”.
Astronauts can already get emails in space and by this, an electronic ballot generated by the office of the Galveston County Clerk was emailed to the secure account of Kimbrough at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The mission control then transferred the email to the space station, so Kimbrough could make his selections from 250 miles or 400 kilometers above the Earth, before sending it back to Texas through a secure email.
As of this writing, there was no word from NASA or Kimbrough on which candidate he picked for president.
Since 1997, the American astronauts have been allowed to vote from space under Texas law. Most astronauts are residents in the Houston area, the cradle of the mission control of NASA and Johnson Space Center.
The first American astronaut to vote in a presidential election from space was Leoy Chiao in 2004 but the first ever American to vote from space was David Wolf, who cast his ballot from the Russian space station Mir.
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