Kingdom of Spain Signs the Artemis Accords

In a ceremony held at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, the Honorable Julissa Reynoso, U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra joined NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations Karen Feldstein to witness the Artemis Accords signing ceremony for the Kingdom of Spain.  Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation Diana Morant signed the Accords, alongside President Pedro Sánchez and Director General of the Agencia Espacial Española Miguel Bello.  The signing follows discussions of the Accords between President Biden and President Sánchez during a recent meeting at the White House.

The Artemis Accords are a set of non-legally binding principles for the responsible and sustainable exploration of outer space,  grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Launched in 2020 with eight signatories, the Accords now boast 25 signatory nations: Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Signatories demonstrate their commitment to responsible and sustainable behavior in space, collaborate in working groups on addressing issues of mutual concern, and actively contribute to multilateral conversations at the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and other fora.  Accords principles include, among others, transparency, use of space for peaceful purposes, mitigation of space debris, disposal of spacecraft, deconfliction of lunar activities and registration of space objects. Following these principles makes operating in outer space safer and more predictable, not only for signatories, but for all space actors.

For the United States, the Artemis Accords are co-led by the Department of State and NASA. Earlier today, the Department of State announced the release of its new Strategic Framework for Space Diplomacy which grounds the Department’s diplomatic efforts on the Artemis Accords in U.S. strategic space objectives and values.

For further information, visit Artemis Accords. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].