Morocco signs the Artemis Accords
Morocco signed the Artemis Accords April 29, becoming the third country to do so in the last 10 days.
Nasser Bourita, Morocco's foreign minister, signed the Accords in a ceremony in the capital of Rabat attended by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and the U.S. ambassador to Morocco, Duke Buchan III.
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry did not give a reason for signing the Accords in a statement, instead publishing comments from Landau thanking Morocco for joining.
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"Today, we are delighted to see our alliance extend to space," Landau said in the statement. "The remarkable growth of the Artemis Accords, which now have 64 signatories from around the world, attests to the universal appeal of their vision of responsible space exploration."
Morocco is the third country to sign the Artemis Accords in the last 10 days. Latvia signed the Accords April 20 and Jordan April 23, both in events at NASA Headquarters. Five countries have signed so far this year, with 64 joining since the Accords were rolled out in 2020.
In an April 29 talk at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium meeting at the Applied Physics Laboratory, before Morocco's signing was announced, a former agency official linked the recent signings to the Artemis 2 mission flown early this month.
"It's not a coincidence that Latvia and Jordan joined a week after the successful Artemis 2 mission," said Mike Gold, president of Redwire Space and a former NASA associate administrator who helped lead the development of the Accords. "As the international community sees the success of the program as it moves forward, it's only going to become more and more popular."
The Artemis Accords outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, building upon the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements. NASA, though, has signaled it wants to also use the Accords to coordinate international cooperation in the Artemis lunar exploration effort, including participation in the lunar base announced by the agency in March.
Gold said he welcomed that shift. "What I'd like to see in the future is those Artemis Accords countries making contributions to the program. It's great that they're supporting the norms of behavior - that's really important - but it's just as important that they participate in the program."
That could lead, he said, to an intergovernmental agreement, or IGA, for the lunar base, one modeled on the existing agreement for the International Space Station. "We should have an IGA-like framework for surface operations so that when Italy wants to be able to dock with a Japanese rover, they don't have to execute a new agreement," he said. "We can take the principles of the Accords, implement them and emphasize them through this series of agreements that will be more tactical to create the framework for smooth, seamless operations on the lunar surface."
He added that he has a suggested name for that lunar base IGA: "the Artemis Agreements."
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