Artemis Accords Country Representatives Meet For First Time

On September 19th, representatives of the 21 nations who have signed the Artemis Accords met for the first time on the sidelines of the 2022 International Astronautical Congress.

As an initial step to elaborate on the principles for safe and sustainable space exploration, the meeting was primarily an organizational meeting with nor major announcements.

“We spent most of the time raising and floating ideas…We had some very interesting discussions about concrete steps to go forward” - Pam Melroy, NASA Deputy Administrator

“We found the meeting extremely useful…There was consensus on the importance of having frequent gatherings of all the signatories” - Giorgio Saccoccia, President of the Italian space agency ASI

Starting with just 8 countries when announced in October 2022, the Artemis Accords have grown to 21 signatories with an open door for more to join. Audie Arabia was the most recent to sign in July.

The Artemis Accords will describe a shared vision for principles, grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to create a safe and transparent environment which facilitates exploration, science, and commercial activities for all of humanity to enjoy.