{"id":384565,"date":"2026-04-10T06:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/384565\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:27:07","slug":"from-her-seattle-office-cantwell-talks-with-artemis-ii-astronauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/384565\/","title":{"rendered":"From her Seattle office, Cantwell talks with Artemis II astronauts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SEATTLE \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cantwell.senate.gov\/about\/biography\/committee-assignments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell <\/a>spoke Thursday with the Artemis II crew as they returned from a mission around the moon, highlighting Washington state\u2019s role in the program and the value of human spaceflight.<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell, a Washington Democrat and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, joined the call from her Seattle office.<\/p>\n<p>ALSO SEE | <a href=\"https:\/\/komonews.com\/news\/local\/nasa-seattle-mercer-island-man-shares-what-it-means-to-see-brother-as-commander-of-artemis-ii-mission-florida-kennedy-space-center\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mercer Island man shares what it means to see brother as Commander of Artemis II mission<\/a><\/p>\n<p>She congratulated <a href=\"https:\/\/komonews.com\/news\/nation-world\/artemis-ii-nears-earth-astronauts-prepare-for-historic-splashdown-mission-nasa-orion-space-lunar-moon-pacific-ocean\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NASA and the Artemis team, who are scheduled to return from their journey around the moon on Friday<\/a>. She relayed that astronaut Anne McClain said members of NASA\u2019s 2013 astronaut class, known as the \u201cEight Balls,\u201d were proud of the crew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis mission is a major investment in science and a testament to human achievement,\u201d Cantwell said, noting that Orion spacecraft thrusters were built in Washington state. She invited the astronauts to visit the state to see the companies and workers supporting the program.<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell asked what human observation could reveal about the moon that robotic rovers cannot.<\/p>\n<p>Astronaut Victor Glover said human explorers can gather data more quickly and provide insights beyond measurements. While rovers collect information at a slower pace, he said, astronauts can also describe the physical and emotional experience of spaceflight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re also going to come back and tell you how it feels  in a technical and medical sense, but also in an emotional sense,\u201d Glover said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a human connection to exploration.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>JOIN THE CONVERSATION (8)<\/p>\n<p>Cantwell last week toured two <a href=\"https:\/\/komonews.com\/news\/local\/washington-state-mukilteo-redmond-contributions-to-the-orion-spacecraft-on-artemis-ii-mission-nasa-launch-kennedy-space-station\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Washington companies involved in the Artemis program<\/a>: Karman Space &amp; Defense in Mukilteo and L3Harris in Redmond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell spoke Thursday with the Artemis II crew as they returned from a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-384565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}