{"id":624669,"date":"2026-04-24T03:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624669\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:06:11","slug":"latvia-and-jordan-join-artemis-accords-spacepolicyonline-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624669\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvia and Jordan Join Artemis Accords \u2013 SpacePolicyOnline.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Latvia and Jordan joined the Artemis Accords this week, bringing to 63 the number of countries that have adopted the U.S.-led set of principles for responsible behavior on the surface of the Moon. They are the first to sign since NASA announced its new plan for the Artemis program on March 24, and since the four Artemis II astronauts \u2014 three American and one Canadian \u2014 flew around the Moon for the first time in 53 years.<\/p>\n

President Trump initiated the Artemis program during his first term and NASA and the U.S. State Department led development of the Artemis Accords at that time along with seven other countries. The original eight signatories \u2014 Australia, Canada, Japan, Italy, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States \u2014 signed on October 13, 2020 during the International Astronautical Congress, held virtually that year due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Governments of any country are welcome to join the Accords whether or not they have space programs or aspire to conduct operations on the Moon, although many do. Countries on all six continents that have governments now are members. The Accords reached a milestone in January when Portugal<\/a> became the 60th member. Oman became the 61st soon thereafter and now Latvia and Jordan are 62nd and 63rd.<\/p>\n

\"\"Signatories to the Artemis Accords as of April 23, 2026. Credit: NASA<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a010 core principles<\/a>\u00a0are: peaceful purposes, transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, registration of space objects, release of scientific data, preserving outer space heritage, space resources, deconfliction of space activities, and orbital debris. They only apply to governments, not the commercial sector, and only to civil activities, not national security.<\/p>\n

Signing ceremonies were held at NASA Headquarters on Monday with Latvia and today with Jordan.<\/p>\n

\"\"Latvia\u2019s Minister for Education and Science Dace Melb\u0101rde, second from right, signs the Artemis Accords, as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, second from left, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, left, and charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires a.i. at the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia to the United States J\u0101nis Be\u0137eris, right, look on. Monday, April 20, 2026, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Photo credit:<\/a> NASA\/Joel Kowsky<\/p>\n

On Monday, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said \u201cwe are proud to welcome Latvia to the Artemis Accords\u201d and its \u201ccommitment strengthens our shared vision for this next great era of exploration.\u201d Dace Melb\u0101rde, Latvia\u2019s Minister for Education and Science, said her country is making a \u201cclear commitment\u201d to the principles in the Accords and participation \u201cis also an investment in the development of our students, researchers, and innovators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Isaacman similarly praised Jordan, noting they \u201cjoin at a pivotal moment\u201d as the principles are put \u201cinto practice with humanity\u2019s return to the Moon.\u201d Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States Dina Kawar said \u201cJordan has more engineers per capita than almost any country in the world\u201d and \u201cHis Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein is ensuring that talent has a direction, transforming Jordan into a regional and global technology hub across AI, digital infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and now space. Today\u2019s signing is proof that this ambition has no ceiling. We invite our American partners to build what comes next with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States Dina Kawar, center, signs the Artemis Accords alongside NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, left, and U.S. Department of State Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Ruth Perry, right, on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at NASA Headquarters, Washington. D.C. Photo credit:<\/a>\u00a0 NASA\/Keegan Barber<\/p>\n

Mike Gold, often cited as the \u201cfather\u201d of the Accords because he spearheaded their development when he was Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships at NASA, told SpacePolicyOnline.com he is \u201cthrilled\u201d that Latvia joined. Currently President of Redwire Space, he noted that Redwire has a drone manufacturing facility in Latvia and their signing the Accords \u201copens up new possibilities for leveraging Latvia\u2019s exceptional manufacturing capabilities to support space-related activities generally and Artemis specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold is also delighted Jordan joined, showing that \u201ceven though the Middle East has faced a difficult period \u2026 the spirit of exploration and optimism is very much alive in the Hashemite Kingdom and the region generally.\u201d\u00a0 NASA\u2019s recent decision to increase the number and cadence of Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions to the lunar surface \u201cwill create unparalleled opportunities for Jordan and numerous other nations to develop payloads, instruments, and science that can travel to the Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaacman announced the plan to accelerate CLPS missions and make other significant changes to the Artemis program at the Ignition event on March 24<\/a>. All 61 of the Artemis Accords signatories at the time were invited to attend. Isaacman posted on X that more than 40 did and \u201cThe Artemis Accords partners are eager to deliver real capabilities to the lunar surface. Countries aren\u2019t just signing onto principles anymore, they\u2019re contributing to the next great age of exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Signatories to the Artemis Accords at NASA\u2019s \u201cIgnition\u201d event on March 24, 2026. Photo credit: @NASAAdmin on X<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Correction: an earlier version of this article identified Mike Gold as Redwire\u2019s President of Civil & International Space, but he is now President of Redwire Space. Apologies, and congratulations!<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLast Updated: Apr 23, 2026 4:58 pm ET\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latvia and Jordan joined the Artemis Accords this week, bringing to 63 the number of countries that have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-624669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}