The Artemis Accords: What Signing On Really Means for States and the Aerospace and Defense Industry
On 25 June 2026, Botswana became the 68th State signatory to the Artemis Accords (the Accords),[1] following shortly after Latvia, Jordan, Morocco, Malta, Paraguay and Ireland – the latter’s accession bringing all European Space Agency (ESA) members within the framework. This widespread adoption reflects growing international consensus around the responsible exploration and use of outer space, with implications for both regulatory and commercial practices. In parallel, the success of the recent Artemis II mission, carrying astronauts around the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years, has brought renewed focus on the broader legal and policy implications of international participation in lunar exploration.
What are the Artemis Accords?
The Accords stem from the US-led Artemis program, an initiative aimed at returning “man” to the Moon and at advancing civil space exploration more broadly.[2] The Artemis program consists of a sequenced set of four missions – beginning with uncrewed and followed by crewed lunar missions – envisaged as stepping stones toward a sustained human presence on the Moon and future deep‑space exploration. The Artemis II mission took place in April this year, with Artemis III and IV missions scheduled for 2027 and 2028, respectively.
Legally, the Accords constitute non-binding political commitments, concluded on a bilateral basis between the United States (acting through NASA and the U.S. Department of State) and each participating State. The uniformity of the text means that, in practice, the Accords function as a shared normative framework for civil space activities between the signatory States.
First launched in October 2020, the Accords articulate a set of practical principles intended to reinforce and operationalize the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Although legally binding, the treaty’s core obligations – such as the prohibition on national appropriation of outer space, as well as the principles of peaceful exploration, scientific cooperation and transparency – have remained largely abstract and difficult to apply in practice. By translating them into more concrete operational norms (e.g., defined safety zones and mandatory open scientific data sharing requirements), the Accords enhance regulatory predictability for private actors seeking to engage in space activities.
New market and investment opportunities
Accession to the Accords signals a State’s alignment with the governing principles of the U.S.-led Artemis program, facilitating subsequent signing of bilateral agreements with NASA through which specific mission roles and contributions can be secured for commercial parties.
Since signing the Accords, a number of States have contributed to, or secured roles in, specific Artemis missions, thus scaling up their domestic space industries.
- Japan: Japan is a key contributor to the Lunar Gateway, the NASA-led Moon-orbiting station that will support Artemis missions. As one of NASA’s core partners on Gateway, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has engaged Japanese companies to deliver key components of the Gateway’s International Habitation module (I-Hab), which will provide life-support functions enabling crews to work, live and conduct research in lunar orbit.[3]
- Canada: The Canadian government has invested CAD 999.8m in Canadian company MDA Space to develop a next‑generation robotic arm for the Lunar Gateway. This project involves hundreds of Canadian SMEs and research organizations across the country.[4]
- Australia: Australia has partnered with NASA to develop an Australian-built rover meant to collect lunar data for scientific research, which NASA will carry to the Moon.[5]
- ESA: The ESA is one of NASA’s principal partners on Artemis, contributing several mission-critical elements of the Lunar Gateway. These include the European Service Module, which will provide propulsion, power, and life‑support capabilities for the Orion Spacecraft used in all crewed missions to space, and ESPRIT, which will deliver refueling capabilities and lunar communications infrastructure.
- Italy: The Italian Space Agency has contracted Thales Alenia Space Italy to undertake the preliminary design of the Multi-Purpose Habitation (MPH) lunar surface model – a pressurized habitat intended to operate for up to a decade on the Moon, and which NASA plans to launch in 2033.[6]
The Accords thus lead to increased collaboration between NASA and the private sectors of signatory States, helping accelerate technological advances and stimulating domestic employment and industrial growth. Structured through NASA’s commercial contracting model, these activities also contribute to the emergence of a more harmonized contractual and operational framework for public-private cooperation in space.
Risks and opportunities
The Accords themselves are not binding and, as such, do not provide a basis for the settlement of disputes in case of non-compliance. That said, we expect that additional international instruments including binding obligations will emerge as States continue to build on the principles set out in the Accords. This is a rapidly evolving area of space governance, and developments will warrant close and ongoing monitoring.
In the meantime, as private actors assume an increasingly prominent role in space exploration (as illustrated above), space-related disputes – and the associated legal and regulatory risks – are likely to increase, including in the following areas:
- the commercial supply of satellite services to telecommunications and defense customers;
- contract performance and liability claims relating to launch services, refueling operations, and in-orbit servicing arrangements;
- joint venture and shareholder disputes between State-owned enterprises and/or private-sector operators; and
- insurance coverage and claims disputes, particularly in connection with orbital damage and collision events.
Companies negotiating launch, procurement, manufacturing or lunar‑surface contracts should therefore pay particular attention to the careful drafting of arbitration clauses, the selection of governing law, and the allocation of liability – particularly where supply chains span multiple jurisdictions and involve a mix of public and private actors.
As capital continues to flow into the space sector, States’ exposure under investment treaties is likely to follow. States will increasingly be required to strike a careful balance between the promotion and protection of private-sector investment on the one hand, and complying with their domestic and international obligations, on the other. The Devas arbitrations against India illustrate how reallocating spectrum to serve public sector priorities can expose States to investment treaty liability where private satellite agreements are terminated. Although investor-State arbitration in the space sector remains in its infancy, the trajectory points toward the emergence of increasingly complex, multi-jurisdictional disputes engaging core principles of international law.
With a thorough understanding of these complex issues, our international arbitration team helps clients anticipate and resolve disputes affecting the space industry. Please contact us to learn more.
