# Artemis Accords The Artemis Accords are a set of principles for how countries should behave on and around the Moon, written by the United States and signed by countries that want to take part in [[NASA]]'s [[Artemis Program]] or simply line up with Washington in space. They were launched on 13 October 2020 with eight signatories: the United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. As of late September 2026, 76 countries had signed. Recent additions include Albania, Croatia, Côte d'Ivoire and San Marino. The accords are not a treaty. They are political commitments, negotiated bilaterally with the United States, that say how signatories interpret the [[Outer Space Treaty]]. ## What they say Signatories commit to: - use space for peaceful purposes and act transparently about their plans; - make their systems compatible so they can work together, and help astronauts in distress; - register their space objects and share scientific data; - protect historic sites, such as the Apollo landing sites; - avoid harmful interference with each other by announcing "safety zones" around their operations; - limit space debris; - and, most controversially, accept that extracting and using space resources is consistent with the Outer Space Treaty. That last point is the heart of the accords. It endorses the American view that a company can own lunar water or minerals it mines without its country claiming the Moon itself. ## A bloc, not just rules China and Russia have not signed. They are building a rival, the International Lunar Research Station, with their own partner countries. The accords have become one way of counting who is on which side in the new competition for the Moon. That makes signing a diplomatic gesture as much as a space-policy decision: India signed in 2023, alongside a wave of countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The accords have also been unusually bipartisan in Washington. They were created in [[Donald Trump]]'s first term, grew fastest under [[Joe Biden]], and have kept expanding in Trump's second term. ## The criticism Critics say the accords let the United States write the rules for the Moon outside the [[United Nations]], where every country has a voice. They argue that "safety zones" could work as territorial claims in practice, especially around scarce resources like ice at the lunar south pole. Supporters reply that the UN process has stalled for decades, and that rules are needed before companies and countries start operating on the Moon. ## Why it's on the map The Artemis Accords are one of the most successful pieces of American soft power of the past decade, built through one administration after another. They are also the main way the U.S. is trying to set the legal rules for resource extraction in space before anyone else does. That makes them a quiet part of the same story as [[Starship]] and the commercial Moon landers: who gets to set the terms on which the Moon is used, and for whose profit. ## See also - [[Outer Space Treaty]] — the treaty the accords interpret - [[Artemis Program]] · [[NASA]] — the program behind them - [[Chinese Space Program Hub]] — the rival lunar partnership - [[The Moon]] — the lunar-resource race - [[Indian Space Research Organisation]] · [[Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency]] — two major signatories' space agencies - [[Space Hub]] — the parent hub