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

US astronaut Cady Coleman being carried away from the landing site of the Soyuz capsule in May 2011. Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/AP View image in fullscreen US astronaut Cady Coleman being carried away from the landing site of the Soyuz capsule in May 2011. Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/AP ‘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’ O rbiting 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 nonpartisan 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 constitution itself, something its members believe has fallen into a sort of a black hole in recent months and years. View image in fullscreen 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 Or, as Coleman puts it, “being willing to speak out when we know something isn’t right”. She said: “All 108 of us, we’re 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. “But during my spaceflights, in looking at all the patches and the names on my astronaut jacket, I literally didn’t know and never asked about their politics. It was just not part of the mission. “The fact is now we’re all together, and what we’re fighting for is something that’s common to all of us, we’re fighting for our country, for our democracy, and for decision making, and restoring the faith in our institutions.” 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’s Vote for Freedom campaign this summer and fall. Ahead of November’s midterm elections, they plan to tour about 60 college and university campuses, many in swing states, talking to young and first-t