Immediately is election day. All U.S. residents, whether or not at residence or overseas, are inspired to vote at this time — even these residents in house.
Sure, NASA astronauts on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) or on different spaceflight missions have voted in U.S. elections all through the company’s historical past, and this yr isn’t any exception. The 4 NASA astronauts at the moment on the ISS have both already voted or are capable of vote via casting particular absentee ballots utilizing NASA’s Close to Area Community community of satellites and floor stations. And since most NASA astronauts stay in Texas close to the company’s Johnson Area Heart in Houston, Texas handed a legislation in 1997 formally permitting astronauts to vote from house, in line with NASA.
However whereas lively astronauts can vote from house, there are nonetheless restrictions on the forms of political actions that they and different NASA staff are allowed to interact in. Chief amongst these prohibitions is the endorsement of a particular political candidate or political celebration.
When requested for remark about why company astronauts can not endorse particular candidates, a NASA spokesperson informed Area.com through electronic mail that “NASA astronauts are federal staff, and are prohibited by the Hatch Act from utilizing their official titles or positions whereas engaged in partisan political exercise.”
That code, the Hatch Act (5 U.S.C. § 7321-7326), particularly prohibits federal staff similar to NASA astronauts from utilizing their positions “for the aim of interfering with or affecting the results of an election.”
In line with a memo dated Oct. 8, 2004 despatched from NASA’s Workplace of the Normal Counsel, the Hatch Act particularly prohibits company staff similar to astronauts from partaking in political exercise whereas on obligation, on authorities property, whereas “carrying a uniform or different related merchandise that identifies NASA because the using company,” or whereas “utilizing a authorities automobile,” which might presumably embrace the Worldwide Area Station and different spacecraft.
However, the 4 NASA astronauts on board the ISS took to social media at this time to indicate their patriotism by encouraging People to get out and vote:
It doesn’t matter in case you are sitting, standing, or floating – what issues is that you just vote! pic.twitter.com/olRTOpIozpNovember 5, 2024
Nevertheless, the Hatch Act doesn’t imply that NASA staff and astronauts must keep away from mentioning politics or political points altogether. In one other memo, dated August 2020, NASA’s Workplace of the Normal Counsel famous that staff should still “specific their opinions about present occasions and issues of public curiosity at work as long as their actions are usually not thought-about political exercise.”
All that is to say that, whereas NASA astronauts are free to voice their opinions on particular points or laws, they can not endorse a specific candidate or political celebration. “Partisan political exercise is distinct from discussions of present occasions, coverage points, and issues of public curiosity,” the 2020 memo factors out.
When two lively NASA astronauts, Anne McClain and Jessica Meir, posted a selfie of themselves voting on social media in late October 2024, some commenters urged that the duo had been endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president. Such critics cited McClain and Meir’s “I Voted” stickers, which featured the textual content “harrisvotes.com” alongside the underside.
Nevertheless, that textual content doesn’t discuss with Kamala Harris: The stickers had been produced by Harris County in Texas, the county through which Houston and NASA’s Johnson Area Heart are discovered. As a result of the astronauts had been merely voting, and never endorsing a particular candidate, their social media publish doesn’t seem to violate U.S. federal code.
We @NASA_Astronauts vote, whether or not we’re on the bottom or in house on the @Space_Station! Get out and vote – let your voice be heard! pic.twitter.com/5c2qLrB3fLOctober 26, 2024
However that is to not say that politics and NASA spaceflight do not generally overlap. In 2020, President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign launched a 2.5-minute video titled “Make Area Nice Once more” that drew widespread criticism for politicizing the house company.
The advert used footage of the 2020 launch of the SpaceX Demo-2 mission, the primary orbital human spaceflight to launch from the US because the 2011 retirement of the house shuttle fleet, to seemingly make a case for Trump’s candidacy that yr. However as many identified, NASA’s Business Crew Program started in 2010 throughout the presidency of Barack Obama.
We have additionally seen loads of former astronauts formally endorse candidates after their retirement. Simply final month, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second particular person ever to step foot on the moon, endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump for his 2024 presidential bid. Different former NASA spaceflyers, similar to Jose Hernandez, Garrett Reisman and Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), took to social media this yr to endorse Harris.
Editor’s notice: This story was up to date at 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) to incorporate remark from NASA.
