Orbiting 250 miles above the US in the international space station, astronaut Cady Coleman did not look down and see red or blue states, sanctuary cities or communities occupied by thousands of federal immigration enforcement agents in camouflage uniforms and automatic weapons.<\/p>\n
What she saw was a single land, from Pacific to Atlantic, no borders or partitions, just a united America, and a population valuing its equality while convinced that what brought them together was far greater than anything that divided them.<\/p>\n
It is that unique perspective, witnessed only by a few hundred people in history, that led Coleman and dozens of other retired Nasa colleagues to form Astronauts for America<\/a>, a nonpartisan advocacy group of fellow space explorers.<\/p>\n Launched, pun intended, to coincide with the 2026 semiquincentennial of the US, the out-of-this-world alliance wants to restore faith in, and support of, the country\u2019s constitutional democracy. It seeks to encourage politicians and the public to commit to the principles of the constitution itself, something its members believe has fallen into a sort of a black hole in recent months and years.<\/p>\n Astronauts for American launch the Vote for Freedom campaign in Los Angeles on 20 July 2026. Photograph: Tommaso Boddi\/Getty Images for Astronauts for America<\/p>\n Or, as Coleman puts it, \u201cbeing willing to speak out when we know something isn\u2019t right\u201d.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cAll 108 of us, we\u2019re very different people from each other. Some of us have very different politics and we certainly each have our own opinions about the current administration, about past administrations.<\/p>\n \u201cBut during my spaceflights, in looking at all the patches and the names on my astronaut jacket, I literally didn\u2019t know and never asked about their politics. It was just not part of the mission.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact is now we\u2019re all together, and what we\u2019re fighting for is something that\u2019s common to all of us, we\u2019re fighting for our country, for our democracy, and for decision making, and restoring the faith in our institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Coleman, 65, who flew two space shuttle missions and spent a total of 180 days in space, including a lengthy tour of duty on the ISS between 2010 and 2011, will join colleagues on Astronauts for America\u2019s Vote for Freedom campaign this summer and fall.<\/p>\n Ahead of November\u2019s midterm elections, they plan to tour about 60 college and university campuses, many in swing states, talking to young and first-time voters and encouraging them to exert their right to be part of the country\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery one of these voters can change the course of our nation, it\u2019s like making a course correction in space,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy astronaut colleague Ron Garan gives this example, a small adjustment now is a large distance later, like getting to the moon or not. A small course correction now can really mean big things as the ship continues on its course.\u201d<\/p>\n The who\u2019s who of Astronauts for America includes some standout names. There are dozens of space shuttle crew members from that program\u2019s 135 missions, including Charles Bolden and Bill Nelson, who both went on to become Nasa<\/a> administrators, and in Nelson\u2019s case, a US senator.<\/p>\n The oldest is Rusty Schweickart, 90, who flew on Apollo 9 in March 1969, four months before the first moon landing.<\/p>\n Few members of Astronauts for America speak onstage during the campaign launch. Photograph: Tommaso Boddi\/Getty Images for Astronauts for America<\/p>\n Bolden, a retired marine corps major general who flew four shuttle missions between 1986 and 1994, is one of the most outspoken of the group, having served as head of Nasa for both of Barack Obama\u2019s terms of office to January 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of us have been kind of watching the deterioration in the US over the last few decades,\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems like every president issues more and more executive orders because they can\u2019t get action out of Congress, or they don\u2019t want action out of Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cI was upset when President Obama started relying on executive orders. I understood the reason, I was in the administration and saw the incalcitrance of Congress and their desire not to give him any wins, so I could understand where he was coming from.<\/p>\n \u201cBut still, that\u2019s not in accordance with the constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Bolden said that \u201cfailure to adhere to the constitution the way we think the framers intended it\u201d placed the country in peril, as well as more recent assaults on democratic norms by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe may not make it if we don\u2019t do something now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe may not have another presidential term to try to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Astronauts for America at the California Science Center on 20 July 2026. Photograph: MediaNews Group\/Los Angeles Daily News\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Linda Godwin, a scientist whose four shuttle missions spanned 10 years and 38 days in space, and two space walks between 1991 and 2001, is on the group\u2019s steering committee plotting its strategy, which includes plans to \u201cgrade\u201d midterm congressional candidates on their commitment to constitutional principles.<\/p>\n \u201cAs astronauts, perhaps we would have a voice,\u201d she said. \u201cNot that we\u2019re necessarily more knowledgeable or smarter or anything like that, but we have a background in which we participated in big missions that depended on truth and accountability, and evidence, and trust.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worked with people who have many different opinions on different things, and we know how to work together to get the mission done. And we kind of felt like, you know, right now, we think our country is the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n The astronauts met on 20 July at the California Science Center to launch their Freedom to Vote campaign, a rare gathering of many of the nation\u2019s space pioneers on the 57th anniversary of the 20 July 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.<\/p>\n The occasion and date were full of poignancy for those present, turning their inspirational past experiences into a message of hope for the future, with a meticulously planned checklist to try to achieve it, just like the scores of missions they once flew.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to speak up when things are happening in our country that are moving us away from the democratic society that we all grew up with, and that we all supported as government employees as well,\u201d said Ellen Ochoa, another four-time shuttle flier who was the first Latina in space in 1993, and the first person to play the flute<\/a> there.<\/p>\n \u201cOne reason we\u2019re reaching out at college campuses is that for a lot of the students this might be their first opportunity to vote, or they may not be in the habit of voting and not thought too much about exercising this right.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message is it\u2019s really important to vote. That\u2019s the most important right you have in a democracy. And it\u2019s also not only a right, but I feel it\u2019s really a responsibility. A democracy depends on the people actively participating, and this is the single most important thing that people can do.\u201d<\/p>\n The assembled astronauts agreed on Monday on a single, space-themed statement all of them could use to encapsulate the purpose of their voting campaign.<\/p>\n They did not disappoint: \u201cGoing to the polls is one small step for you, and one giant leap for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orbiting 250 miles above the US in the international space station, astronaut Cady Coleman did not look down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,66,306],"class_list":["post-829265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}