Sen. Cantwell: “We’ll never have enough people in science if we don’t get more women…we’re calling on you.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, met with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NASA Crew-3 Astronauts, Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Richland native Kayla Barron. Crew-3, which lasted 177 days from November 11, 2021 to May 6, 2022, was the fourth operational flight of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the third overall crewed orbital flight of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

During their meeting, Sen. Cantwell and the Crew-3 members discussed the importance of funding the NASA Reauthorization Act 2020, which aimed to recognize the Artemis missions in U.S. law for the first time. To provide certainty and stability for the program, language authorizing the Artemis missions and requiring NASA to establish stringent oversight requirements was eventually incorporated into the CHIPS & Science Act, which Cantwell spearheaded through Congress. The CHIPS & Science Act was signed into law on August 9, 2022.

“All of this is so important right now because the bill I worked on is a really big investment in our nation's exploration and science,” said Sen. Cantwell. “But we won't have anybody to implement it if we don't get more young people into the sciences. And there's no better asset than you guys to say, ‘Get in, get in. Let’s go!’”

Sen. Cantwell continued, “We’ll never have enough people in science if we don't get more women – so that's part of the Artemis mission as well is to say to women, ‘We’re calling on you. So come on out because that's how much work has to be done.’”

The CHIPS & Science Act also authorizes an unprecedented $13 billion in STEM education funding at the National Science Foundation (NSF), representing a tripling of NSF’s annual STEM education budget over five years. Nearly $2 billion is authorized to go to minority-serving institutions and other emerging research institutions around the country with a proven track record of helping grow a diverse workforce.

Although the number of women in STEM has been increasing, studies show that a gender gap persists – as of 2019, 34 percent of the STEM workforce was women. However, research shows that interacting with women scientists and having female role models helps women to choose STEM careers and make them more likely to stay in STEM.

In October 2022, Sen. Cantwell joined Astronaut Anne McClain and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers for a conversation on the importance of brining more women into the sciences and the workforce at the Spokesman-Review’s 2022 Inlander Women of the Year ceremony.

The Artemis I mission is expecting to be completed on December 11th, when the unmanned Orion crew capsule returns to Earth. NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Anne McClain, both Washington natives, are among the 18 people under consideration to go around the Moon as part of the Artemis II mission, and eventually to land on the Moon as part of the Artemis III mission.