Artemis Accords signatories will meet at the International Astronautical Congress next week to discuss concrete ways countries can work together on responsible operations in space, according to a NASA release.
The Artemis Accords Principals’ Meeting in Turkey will be led by NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson and Maj. Gen. Roberto Melgar Sheen, director of the Peruvian Space Agency. The meeting will focus on two initiatives:
- How space-faring nations can support countries wanting to establish or grow their presence in orbit;
- How to distribute recommendations on mitigating lunar debris.
The more the merrier: The meeting comes as the group of Artemis Accords nations grew to 76 countries, with the additions of Albania, Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire, and San Marino last week.
The recent influx has helped the partnership hit a few milestones, according to NASA.
- 40% of global countries are now signed onto the non-binding agreement;
- About two-thirds of signatories to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty have also signed the Artemis Accords;
- Nearly one-third of the signatories of the accords have joined since President Donald Trump took office for the second time in January 2025.
“You’ve got the Italian Space Agency contributing a habitat that will put astronauts on the Moon. JAXA is making big contributions,” Isaacman said last week at Payload’s Off World event in Houston. “At least half of the Artemis Accords signatories have made commitments for some sort of scientific or tech demonstration payload that’s going to go to the lunar surface.”
The big picture: 16 nations have joined since we published our analysis last year, so this seemed as good a time as any to update our charts and graphics. We’ll start with our world map of signatories.
2026 has been a banner year for the accords, adding 17 signatories. It’s the biggest year for the accords since 2024, which added 19 new nations.
The growth in 2026 has been global—though Europe and Africa have seen the largest increase. Seven EU signatories joined this year. Africa also saw substantial growth, from four nations to nine.
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