NASA Commander Mike Fincke (right) and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff in the International Space Station should get a prize on November 4 for the votes that came the farthest — in this case traveling 220 miles above Earth and orbiting at 17,500 miles per hour. They will still be able to participate in the upcoming U.S. election the result of a 1997 bill passed by Texas legislators that sets up a technical procedure for astronauts, nearly all of whom live in Houston, to vote from space. The astronauts will cast their votes and a secure completed ballot is downlinked and delivered back to the County Clerk’s Office by e-mail to be officially recorded.

A secure electronic ballot, generated by the Harris and Brazoria County Clerk's office, is uplinked by NASA's Johnson Space Center Mission Control Center. An e-mail with crew member-specific credentials is sent from the County Clerk to the crew member. These credentials allow the crew member to access the secure ballot.

To highlight their unique voting situation and to encourage others to exercise their civic duty, Fincke and Chamitoff sent a special message that aired on NASA TV starting Monday, October 27.

Photo: Commander Mike Fincke (right) and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff send a special message from the International Space Station urging all Americans to vote. Credit: NASA TV

Joined by Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, Fincke and Chamitoff also beamed down a message celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of the station's launch. The first station piece, the bus-sized Zarya module, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on November 20, 1998. In the 10 years since, 76 flights have been launched to the complex. The orbiting laboratory has now grown to a mass of almost 600,000 pounds and an inside volume larger than a four-bedroom house.