"True dedication to democracy" — Internet reacts to 2 US astronauts stranded on the International Space Station scheduled to vote from space

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the International Space Station due to technical issues since early June. Now, it has been reported that they have decided to cast their votes for the upcoming Presidential elections to be held in November, from space.

Williams spoke about the decision and said:

"It's a very important duty that we have as citizens, and [we're] looking forward to being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool."

The information had made netizens share their perspective on social media. Here are some opinions that they have shared on X, formerly known as Twitter:

"That's amazing! Voting from space shows true dedication to democracy."

A netizen wrote:

"Wonder if their political opinions differ and one throws the other into the void 😭😭."

"Voting Kamala Harris from Space is so iconic," read another tweet.

"Elon musk will make sure astronauts will vote for Trump from space lmao," commented a user.

A number of other netizens chimed in as well, with some stating that the focus should be on bringing them back safely. A user wrote:

"I get that voting is important, but how is this even on their priority radar right now??"

"Bring them back!" wrote another netizen.

"So we know they voting but we don’t know where they are to save them?" questioned a user.

The news about them casting their vote from space was revealed on Friday, through an Earth Call with the media.

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Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck in space for more than 100 days

For the unversed, the two astronauts left earth on June 5, 2024, on an eight-day test mission. However, things didn't go as planned and the duo got stuck there. NASA had recently made an announcement claiming that they would bring them back in February 2025.

Business Today reported that after Boeing's Starliner was declared unsafe for them to return in, a SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft would be sent to get them back to earth. Mission commander Wilmore said:

"We are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do. And it is not easy. It's not an easy thing to do, but that's not why we do it. Maybe we do it because it's hard."

It had been discovered that the Starliner wasn't fit to bring the astronauts back from the mission which was meant to test the competency of the spacecraft to be used by NASA on a regular basis.

Former astronaut Michael Fossum told Nine to Noon that what happened to the two astronauts was "pretty jarring." Wilmore, in response to whether he felt disappointed about being stranded, had said that the field they are in is a "risky business," further explaining that things wouldn't always go the way they had originally been planned.

He then pointed at Sunita Williams' NASA logoed t-shirt and added:

"That represents something that we stand for as an agency. We go beyond. We do things that are out of the ordinary. We send humans to space."

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While people are hoping for the safe return of the two astronauts, the decision of casting their votes in November has currently become a hot topic of conversation.