Switzerland, Sweden Join Artemis Accords

Switzerland and Sweden brought the number of Artemis Accords signatories up to 38 in the past two days. The U.S.-led Accords are a set of non-binding principles of responsible behavior on the Moon. They join 12 other members of the European Space Agency in agreeing to them.

Yesterday, Swiss Federal Councillor and Minister for Economic Affairs, Education and Research Guy Parmelin signed the Accords at NASA Headquarters. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson welcomed Switzerland as the 37th signatory. “As we welcome you into the Artemis Accords family, we expand our commitment to explore the unknown openly and peacefully. Discovery strengthens goodwill on Earth, and we are excited to expand our countries’ shared values and principles to the cosmos.”

Noting Switzerland’s long-standing partnership with NASA on human spaceflight and earth and space science, Parmelin said “With the signature of the Artemis Accords we renew our commitment to jointly explore the heavens above us.”

Today, Sweden also signed. Each country decides when, where and how publicly they want to sign. While Switzerland had a ceremony at NASA that was announced in advance, news of Sweden’s joining came via a post on X from Nelson.

Our list of global allies in space keeps on growing!

Today, @NASA welcomed Sweden as the 38th signatory of the #Artemis Accords. The future of space will be written by nations who explore the stars openly, responsibly, and in peace. pic.twitter.com/2gbQGHIAgF

— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) April 16, 2024

In a later press release, NASA said the agreement was signed in Stockholm and identified the two men in the photo as Sweden’s Minister for Education Mats Persson and U.S. Ambassador Erik D. Ramanathan. Nelson said: “Our nations have worked together to discover new secrets in our Solar System, and now, we welcome you to a global coalition that is committed to exploring the heavens openly, transparently, responsibly, and in peace. The United States and Sweden share the same bedrock principles, and we’re excited to expand these principles to the cosmos.”

Persson added: “By joining the Artemis Accords, Sweden strengthens its strategic space partnership with the U.S. on space covering areas such as Swedish space research and the space industry, which in turn also strengthens Sweden’s total defense capability.”

Crafted by NASA and the State Department in 2020, the Artemis Accords spell out 10 principles for how countries should work together on the Moon: 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.

Eight countries became the original signatories in October 2020 and many more have joined since.

The U.S. Artemis program is designed to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon as part of long-term sustainable exploration and utilization with commercial and international partners.

Switzerland and Sweden are the 13th and 14th members of the 22-member European Space Agency (ESA) to sign the Accords, joining Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom. ESA is a space agency, not a country, so cannot sign itself.

ESA’s other member states are Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, and Portugal.

ESA is a major partner with NASA in the full range of human and robotic space activities in Earth orbit and beyond. For Artemis, ESA is providing the Service Modules for the Orion spacecraft that will take astronauts to lunar orbit. The first European Service Module (ESM) flew on the uncrewed Artemis I test flight in 2022. The second was delivered to NASA last summer for use on the Artemis II crewed test flight planned for September 2025. ESA will continue to provide ESM’s for future missions including Artemis III that will put American astronauts back on the lunar surface in September 2026 for the first time since the Apollo program.

ESA also is a partner in the Gateway space station that will orbit the Moon and serve as a transfer point for astronauts traveling to and from the surface. ESA is providing the ESPRIT (European System Providing Refuelling Infrastructure and Telecommunication) module and, together with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), an international habitation module called I-Hab.

ESA secured three flight opportunities for European astronauts to travel to and work on Gateway as part of the agreement with NASA.

Along with ESA and Japan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates are partners in the Artemis program. They were among the first set of eight signatories to the Artemis Accords.

Canada is providing a next generation robotic arm for Gateway building on its experience with Canadarm for the space shuttle and Canadarm2 for the International Space Station. A Canadian astronaut is one of the four crew members for Artemis II.

Japan will provide the life support systems for the European/Japanese I-Hab module and is building a pressurized rover for astronauts to move around on the lunar surface. Last week President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida announced that in return for providing the rover, a Japanese astronaut will become the first non-American on the Moon on a future U.S. Artemis mission. A second Japanese will land at a later date.

The UAE is building an airlock for Gateway.

Any country is welcome to sign the Accords, whether or not they plan to participate in Artemis or have other spaceflight plans.

This article has been updated.