Turkey signed the Artemis Accords on Sept. 1, joining the U.S.-led international framework for responsible civil space exploration, the State Department announced.
Turkey’s signature broadens the coalition of nations committed to the accords’ principles of transparency, interoperability and the peaceful use of outer space as NASA advances its Artemis lunar program, according to the State Department.
The Artemis Accords are a U.S.-led diplomatic instrument designed to establish norms for space exploration in the absence of an updated Outer Space Treaty, the 1967 agreement that remains the primary international legal framework for space activities. More than 40 nations have signed the accords since their launch in 2020.
Turkey’s participation carries additional geopolitical significance given its status as a NATO ally with an emerging domestic space program. The Turkish Space Agency, established in 2018, has set goals for satellite development and eventual participation in international space missions.
For the United States, each new Artemis Accords signatory strengthens the normative framework Washington is building in competition with China and Russia, which have pursued their own International Lunar Research Station partnership outside the U.S.-led framework.
The accords establish guidelines for resource utilization on the Moon and other celestial bodies, deconfliction of space activities, registration of space objects and the release of scientific data, areas where international consensus has not been reached through traditional treaty processes.
Turkey’s signing adds a strategically located NATO partner to the accord coalition, extending the framework’s reach into the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East regions.