Artemis Accords: A Step Toward International Cooperation or Further Competition?
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine gives remarks on the agency’s Artemis program (NASA HQ, https://flic.kr/p/2hXcxV6; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/).
On Oct. 13, the Artemis Accords Principles for a Safe, Peaceful, and Prosperous Future, commonly referred to as the Artemis Accords, were signed by their eight founding member states: Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. More recently, on Nov. 13, Ukraine joined as the ninth signatory. The unveiling of the accords a series of agreements that provide a framework to maintain peace in outer space and govern behavior on the moon has caused much excitement in the international community. But while they were drafted to serve as a tool for international cooperation, in the eyes of some space law and policy experts the accords could have the opposit
THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND
BUDGET
THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL
SECURITY AFFAIRS
SPACE ADMINISTRATION
TECHNOLOGY POLICY
SUBJECT: The National Space Policy
Section 1. References. This directive supersedes Presidential Policy Directive – 4 (June 29, 2010) and references, promotes, and reemphasizes the following policy directives and memoranda:
a) Presidential Policy Directive 26 – National Space Transportation Policy (November 21, 2013)
b) Executive Order 13803 – Reviving the National Space Council (June 30, 2017)
c) Space Policy Directive 1 – Reinvigorating America’s Human Space Exploration Program (December 11, 2017)
d) The National Space Strategy (March 23, 2018)
e) Space Policy Directive 2 – Streamlining Regulations on Commercial Use of Space (May 24, 2018)
f) Space Policy Directive 3 – National Space Traffic Management Policy (June 18, 2018)