NASA astronaut tours Montana campuses encouraging students to register to vote

Few men and women in the world have had the opportunity to “be my own little spaceship,” as former NASA astronaut John Harrington describes performing a space walk at the International Space Station.

Two decades ago, Harrington, a naval aviator and member of the Chickasaw Nation, became the first enrolled member of a Native American tribe to fly in space as part of the 16th Space Shuttle mission, spending nearly 20 hours doing spacewalks. 

It’s an event that is commemorated on a 2019 edition of the Sacajawea dollar coin, and one Harrington has been recounting to college students around Montana while encouraging them to register to vote in November’s elections. 

“That’s what our responsibility is, as citizens of this great nation, to get people to go out and vote,” Harrington said in an interview with the Daily Montanan. “Not tell them who to vote for, just get out and do your responsibility.”

Harrington visited Blackfoot Community College last week and will be at Montana State University on Monday evening as a member of Astronauts for America, a nonpartisan organization that launched this spring.

More than 100 former NASA astronauts are part of the organization and Harrington, who lives in Marion just west of Kalispell, is a member of the group’s steering committee. 

Harrington said a few of his colleagues first approached him last fall with concerns they had about the country’s increasing divisiveness, and how they could use their experience and platform to make a difference. 

“What can we do as astronauts to use our voice …  to maybe kind of change the dialogue in the nation today, and really focus back on the Constitution, the rule of law, separation powers, all those things that you know this country was founded on,” Harrington said. “Can we bring back a dialogue across the aisle from both sides?”

Astronauts for America says its members are charged with a new mission — getting young Americans to vote. Many have been touring college campuses for weeks — in California, Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas and Montana — with members interacting with students and community members and hosting conversations about the importance of civic engagement. 

Riffing on one of the most iconic statements of the 20th century, the campaign’s message is that “Going to the polls is one small step for you, and one giant leap for our country.” 

Harrington said when he was in college he carried out his responsibility and voted, but wasn’t very engaged in the issues. 

“I believed that the people we elected to national office had it all together,” Harrington said. “As you get older, you realize that it’s not necessarily the case, right?” 

In the last two presidential election cycles, demographic data compiled by Pew Research shows that more than 55% of voters were more than age 50, around 15% were younger than 30. 

Harrington uses this data and tells students: “Don’t let Boomers decide your future.”

“As a student, your vote is your voice,” he said. “If there’s something you want to see your elected representative vote for — things that are going to make your life better, your kids’ life better — don’t believe that people that are much older than you have your best interest in mind. You have your best interest in mind.”

Harrington said that he’d been asked to get involved in politics numerous times, but emphasized that Astronauts for America was founded on nonpartisan ideals, which Harrington says is an easy parallel to make with spaceflight. 

“As an astronaut, I never asked my commander what his politics were or his religion — none of the crew did,” he said. “That’s not what we were concerned about. We’re concerned about our mission and we all played a part. If we didn’t, the mission would fail.

Everyone in America has a mission, he continued, and the mission “is our country.”

“You may not think one vote makes a difference, but if one little part on a space shuttle comes apart, you’re not going to get to orbit. In voting, you’ve got to play your part,” he said. “Don’t expect somebody else to do it for you, because the mission may not turn out the way you want it to.”

Harrington will also be speaking at the University of Idaho, where he completed a doctorate in 2014 on Oct 12.