India became the 27th nation to sign the Artemis Accords with the United States (US), thereby demonstrating its commitment to sustainable and transparent space activity.
This agreement between India and the US aims to boost the cooperation between the two nations and explore the domain beyond the boundaries of Earth.
Artemis Accord is a US-led effort to send humans to the moon again by 2025, with the definitive goal of expanding space exploration to Mars and beyond.
To be noted, NASA in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, established the Artemis Accords in 2020 together with seven other founding member nations.
The Artemis Accords reinforce and implement key obligations in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
They also reinforce the commitment by the United States and signatory nations to the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.
Further, it establishes a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations.
The principles include transparency, peaceful purposes, registering of space objects and release of scientific data, help make the space environment safer and more predictable, and allow all nations – even those without space programs – to benefit from the scientific data obtained in space.
Till date, the Artemis Accords signatories includes of: Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
For more information, please visit the Artemis Accords website at https://www.state.gov/artemis-accords/
