29 April, Morocco signed the Artemis Agreement, becoming a third country, who did it last 10 days.
During a ceremony in the capital of Morocco, Rabat, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, Nasser Burita, signed the Agreements. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and US Ambassador to Morocco Duke Buchan III attended the ceremony.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Morocco in its statement did not indicate the reasons for signing the Agreements, instead published Landau's comments, in which he thanked Morocco for joining.
"Today we are happy to see, as our alliance extends into space, Landau said in a statement. — The striking growth of the Artemis Agreements, which now have 64 signatories from all over the world, testifies to the universal appeal of their vision of responsible space exploration".
Morocco became the third country, who signed the Artemis Agreements for the last 10 days. Latvia signed the Agreements 20 April, and Jordan — 23 April, both events took place at NASA headquarters. Five countries have already signed the Agreements this year. In general, with 2020 year, when the Agreements were presented, joined them 64 countries.
During the speech 29 April at the meeting of the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium at the Laboratory of Applied Physics (even before Morocco's signing was announced) a former NASA official linked the latest signings to the Artemis mission 2, which was successfully held earlier this month.
The Artemis Accords outline best practices for safe and sustainable space exploration, based on the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements. Водночас NASA сигналізує, що хоче використовувати Угоди також для координації міжнародної співпраці в рамках місячної програми Artemis, зокрема участі в місячній базі, про яку агентство оголосило у березні.
Це може призвести до укладення міжурядової угоди (IGA) щодо місячної бази, зразком для якої може стати чинна угода щодо Міжнародної космічної станції. Учасникам Угоди Артеміди потрібен подібний до IGA рамковий документ для операцій на поверхні, щоб, коли Італія захоче пристикуватись до японського ровера, їм не довелося укладати нову угоду.
Source: https://spacenews.com