WASHINGTON — Argentina signed the U.S.-led Artemis Accords outlining best practices for space exploration, a part of a recent surge of nations joining the agreement.
Daniel Filmus, Argentina’s minister for science, technology and innovation, signed the Artemis Accords in a ceremony July 27 at Casa Rosada, Argentina’s presidential office in Buenos Aires. Argentine President Alberto Fernández attended the ceremony together with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“Together with our fellow Artemis Accords signatories, the USA and Argentina are setting a normal for twenty first century exploration and use of space,” Nelson said in an announcement concerning the signing.
The Accords, rolled out in 2020, outline best practices and norms of behavior for space activities, constructing upon the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements. They extend to additional topics, similar to exchange of scientific data and utilization of space resources.
“We’re convinced that the Artemis Accords constitute a contribution to the event of space activities with peaceful purposes at a world level and that they’ll increase international cooperation with Argentina,” said Filmus within the NASA statement.
Argentina is the 28th country to sign the Accords and the fifth to accomplish that within the last three months. The Czech Republic and Spain signed the document in May, followed by Ecuador and India in June.
“The unprecedented momentum that the Accords are having fun with is a tribute to the worldwide desire for norms of behavior in space,” said Mike Gold, chief growth officer at Redwire and a former NASA official who spearheaded development of the Artemis Accords in 2020. “This is important not only for presidency activities, but for the private sector as well, since investors and operators profit greatly from an environment in space that’s peaceful, predictable and prosperous.”
Signing the Accords, though, doesn’t mean a rustic might be participating within the NASA-led Artemis lunar exploration campaign. “The Accords are how we’re going to operate and it’s really about how we’re going to conduct ourselves once we do the Artemis missions,” said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for exploration systems development, during a panel discussion on the American Astronautical Society’s Glenn Memorial Symposium July 19. “Folks who sign the Accords are stepping up and saying, ‘Yes, I need to operate in an open, transparent way.’”
Countries which are cooperating on Artemis by providing hardware or expertise, he noted, are handled individually from the Accords though a series of agreements. “What we’re asking everyone to do is to take our objectives, compare them to yours,” he said, to search for areas that align, “and the way that plays out to what you possibly can contribute.”
U.S. and Italy to expand space cooperation
While Argentina joined the list of Artemis Accords signatories, one in every of the primary countries to sign the document is expanding its cooperation with the USA in space.
In a July 27 joint statement after a gathering on the White House between President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the leaders of the 2 countries said they might work to reinforce cooperation between the countries in space.
“America and Italy commit to strengthen space cooperation, including through the creation of a ‘recent space dialogue’ to advertise industrial cooperation with government support,” the document stated. The document didn’t go into details about that space dialogue and what it can accomplish.
The joint statement noted the countries welcomed “revolutionary recent business space partnerships, including to advance human spaceflight,” specifically mentioning business space stations. Thales Alenia Space Italia is working with two American corporations, Axiom Space and Northrop Grumman, developing business space stations.
Three Italians flew as payload specialists on Virgin Galactic’s first business SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceflight in June. One among them, Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, has trained with Axiom Space for a future business flight to the International Space Station.
The statement added that the countries “recognize the importance of addressing space threats through norms, rules, and principles of responsible behaviors.” The Italian government announced in April it will not conduct destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons tests, joining an initiative announced by Vice President Kamala Harris a yr earlier.