‘Our country is the mission’: more than 100 ex-Nasa astronauts launch new voting campaign

Astronauts for America liken effort to instill trust and faith back in constitution’s principles and democratic institutions to ‘making a course correction’ 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. 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. 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 non-partisan advocacy group of fellow space explorers. 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’s constitutional democracy. It seeks to encourage politicians and the public to commit to the principles of the cons