26 January 2026 Oman signed the Artemis Accords during the Middle East Space Conference in Muscat and became the 61st participating country.
For reference: Artemis Accords are international agreements, initiated by NASA in 2020 year, establishing the principles of civilian exploration and use of the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes. They are based on the Outer Space Treaty 1967 year and are aimed at creating a safe, transparent and stable environment for space missions.
Oman has a small, but a growing presence in the space sphere, including plans, announced on the same day at the conference, purchase a small geostationary communication satellite from the Astranis company (designs and creates small, low-cost telecommunication satellites for operation in geostationary orbit) for launch later this year, as well as a larger satellite from Airbus (one of the world's largest aerospace and defense corporations, European manufacturer of passenger, cargo, military transport planes and helicopters). The country is also developing a spaceport, which attracted launcher developers, in particular, the Spanish company PLD Space, which develops reusable launch vehicles to launch small satellites into orbit, and which is often called SpaceX's competitor in Europe.
President of Redwire Space and former NASA official said, that the growing number of signatories to the Artemis Accords demonstrates growing global agreement to support a vision of a peaceful and prosperous future in space. Unlike Artemis, China's coalition for the International Lunar Research Station has not added any national partners with 2024 year.
Source: https://spacenews.com