Artemis Accords Reach Another Milestone with Portugal

Portugal became the 60th country to join the Artemis Accords today. It’s another milestone for the U.S.-led principles for responsible behavior on the Moon. The Accords recently celebrated the fifth anniversary of when the first eight countries — Australia, Canada, Japan, Italy, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States — signed the non-binding principles in October 2020.

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Science and Innovation Helena Canhão signed the Accords yesterday. A ceremony attended by U.S. Ambassador to Portugal John Arrigo and Executive Director of the Portuguese Space Agency Hugo Costa was held today in Lisbon.

Costa noted that the imminent return to the Moon with Artemis II will “mark the beginning of a new era of space exploration, reminiscent of the Portuguese explorers of the past, such as Magellan and his circumnavigation of our planet.” Arrigo added that Portugal joining is a “meaningful step forward for responsible space exploration. … Shared principles like those in the Artemis Accords are essential to ensuring that space remains a domain of stability, safety, and opportunity for all nations.” In a press release, the U.S. State Department said: “As a committed NATO Ally, Portugal is a key U.S. partner; Portugal’s signing of the Accords extends that close partnership into outer space.”

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman provided videotaped remarks that he shared on social media.

Welcome to the Artemis Accords, Portugal! 🇵🇹

One of America’s oldest allies has joined this growing coalition of nations committed to safe, transparent, and peaceful exploration of space.

This 60th signing strengthens the Artemis alliance, ignites more opportunities for… pic.twitter.com/6D9WxLRlMu

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) January 12, 2026

Although the Accords are designed to guide international participation in the U.S.-led Artemis program to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo program, signatories may or may not be part of Artemis.  All countries are welcome to sign the Accords whether or not they have space programs of their own or plan to explore the Moon. The 60 members include countries from all six of the seven continents that have governments (Antarctica does not).

The 10 core principles are: peaceful purposes, transparency, interoperability, emergency assistance, registration of space objects, release of scientific data, preserving outer space heritage, space resources, deconfliction of space activities, and orbital debris. They only apply to governments, not the commercial sector, and only to civil activities, not national security.

The Accords were developed in the first Trump Administration. The first eight signatories were joined by many others in 2020 and during the four years of the Biden Administration. The list continues to grow now. Portugal is the eighth country to join since the second Trump Administration began. The others are Bangladesh, Finland, Hungary, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines, and Senegal. The Secure World Foundation maintains a spreadsheet of the signatories and when they joined, as well as signatories to China’s equivalent, the International Lunar Research Station Cooperation Organisation.

Latvia passed legislation on October 31 allowing the government to sign the Accords and was expected to do so once the U.S. government shutdown ended in November, but that hasn’t happened yet.

The Meridian International Center hosted a celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Accords on December 11, 2025. Mike Gold, who played a pivotal role in crafting the Accords when he was NASA Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, moderated several panels of key players in the development and implementation of the Accords with a look to the future.

Now with Redwire, Gold told SpacePolicyOnline.com today that the upcoming Artemis II launch “will be sending not just our astronauts but our values to the Moon.  Portugal has provided a significant policy milestone that compliments the historic technical milestone that we’re about to achieve.”

Gold hopes that going forward NASA will focus on “leveraging this growing family of nations to make contributions to the Artemis program” beyond just signing the Accords.

“Some of these contributions will be quite large, such as the airlock from the UAE or rovers from Japan, and some could be as modest as graduate students analyzing lunar terrain and data.  The underlying message is that if you’re a large country with significant resources and experience in space, or if you’re a small nation that is taking its first bold steps into the final frontier, there is a place for you in the Artemis program.  We will lead the world not just to the Moon and Mars, but to a better future for all of humanity to enjoy.” — Mike Gold

 

This article has been updated.