Orbiting 250 miles above the US, astronaut Cady Coleman didn't see red states, blue states, or the ongoing immigration drama. She saw one land, from Pacific to Atlantic, no borders - just a united America where people vaguely remember they're supposed to like each other. That unique, high-altitude perspective led Coleman and over 100 retired NASA colleagues to form Astronauts for America, a nonpartisan advocacy group of space explorers who've decided that if they can cooperate in a tin can for months, maybe politicians can too.

Launched (pun very much intended) to coincide with the 2026 semiquincentennial of the US, this out-of-this-world alliance wants to restore faith in constitutional democracy. They're urging politicians and the public to commit to the Constitution - something members feel has fallen into a black hole lately. As Coleman puts it, “being willing to speak out when we know something isn’t right.”

“All 108 of us, we’re very different people,” Coleman said. “Some of us have very different politics... But during my spaceflights, I literally didn’t know and never asked about their politics. It was just not part of the mission.” Now the mission is saving democracy, one vote at a time.

Ahead of November’s midterm elections, the group plans to tour about 60 college and university campuses, many in swing states, talking to young and first-time voters. “Every one of these voters can change the course of our nation, it’s like making a course correction in space,” Coleman said, borrowing a metaphor from astronaut Ron Garan: “A small adjustment now is a large distance later, like getting to the moon or not.”

The who's who includes Charles Bolden and Bill Nelson (both former NASA administrators, and Nelson also a senator), and Rusty Schweickart, 90, who flew on Apollo 9 four months before the first moon landing. Bolden, a retired Marine Corps major general, lamented the deterioration in US politics: “It seems like every president issues more and more executive orders because they can’t get action out of Congress... That’s not in accordance with the Constitution.” He warned, “We may not make it if we don’t do something now. We may not have another presidential term to try to make a difference.”

Linda Godwin, a scientist with four shuttle missions, is on the steering committee plotting strategy, which includes “grading” midterm congressional candidates on constitutional commitment. “As astronauts, perhaps we would have a voice,” she said. “Not that we’re necessarily more knowledgeable or smarter... but we have a background in which we participated in big missions that depended on truth and accountability, and evidence, and trust. We know how to work together to get the mission done. And we kind of felt like, right now, we think our country is the mission.”

The astronauts launched their Freedom to Vote campaign on July 20 at the California Science Center - fittingly, the 57th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. They agreed on a space-themed slogan: “Going to the polls is one small step for you, and one giant leap for our country.” Because if you can't land a punchline after landing on the moon, when can you?