Albania will become the 73rd country to sign the Artemis Accords at a ceremony at NASA headquarters in Washington on Monday, September 21.
NASA announced that Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson will host Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ferit Hoxha, and the country’s ambassador to the United States, Ervin Bushati. US State Department officials will also attend the ceremony.
Established in 2020 by the United States and seven other founding countries, the Artemis Accords set out common principles for civilian space exploration on the Moon, Mars and beyond.
They cover peaceful use, transparency, assistance to astronauts in distress, registration of space objects, sharing of scientific data, protection of historic sites and measures to prevent harmful interference and orbital debris.
The accords are not a space mission or a guarantee of participation in NASA programmes.
They are a political commitment to common rules for cooperation in space and reinforce existing obligations under international space treaties, according to NASA.
Albania has limited space capabilities but has previously invested in satellite services. In 2022, the government signed a $6 million agreement giving it priority access to two Earth-observation satellites named Albania-1 and Albania-2.
The satellites were launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January 2023 and were intended to support the monitoring of Albanian territory, including illegal construction, logging and cannabis cultivation.
Signing the accords places Albania within the expanding US-led framework for future civil and commercial activity in space, but its practical value will depend on whether the country develops scientific, technical and institutional cooperation following the ceremony.
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