HOUSTON — NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch another Dragon crew to the International Space Station next month, less than two weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
During the first briefing with the astronauts of Crew 1, the space travelers from NASA said they'll all vote in space.
"All of us are planning on voting from space," astronaut Shannon Walker said Tuesday.
Walker said while each of the three American astronauts is voting from different counties, NASA has coordinated a secure way for them to cast their ballots.
The three will join astronaut Kate Rubins in voting from space. Rubins is just outside Moscow in Star City, Russia, getting ready for her Oct. 14 flight to the ISS alongside two cosmonauts.
"I think it's really important for everybody to vote," Rubins said. "If we can do it from space, then I believe folks can do it from the ground, too."
Most astronauts live in Houston, and Texas law allows them to vote in space using an electronic ballot. Mission Control in Houston forwards the ballot to the ISS and then replays it back to the respective county clerk.
"It was easiest for us to just say we're going to vote from space, so that's what we're going to do," Walker said.
Another big announcement coming out of Tuesday's briefing was the name reveal of this crew's Dragon capsule.
"The Crew 1 Dragon capsule number 207 will henceforth be known by the call sign 'Resilience,'" mission commander Michael Hopkins said.
Hopkins said the name Resilience is in honor of the SpaceX and NASA teams as well as "our families, our colleagues, our fellow citizens and our international partners" who have remained resilient in the midst of a challenging year.
The first Dragon spacecraft to launch humans is named Endeavour by its first astronaut crew, NASA's Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Crew 1's mission patch, Hopkins noted, doesn't have any names or flags on it. Hopkins said that's on purpose because the patch "doesn't just represent the four of us."
"It is a connection to all of you, to everybody," he said. "We hope that it provides something positive...we hope it's an inspiration."
Crew 1 consists of Mission Specialist Walker, Pilot Victor Glover, Commander Hopkins and Mission Specialist Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 2:40 a.m. Oct. 31 for the launch, with the Resilience spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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