Switzerland Joins NASA in Moon Exploration by Signing Artemis Accords

Swiss Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson gathered together in the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters in Washington on Monday, April 15, making noted that Switzerland eventually entered Artemis Accords, an agreement on the principle of exploration and utilization of the moon.

In his speech, the administrator underlined the essence of the collaboration between the U.S. and the Switzerland, a commitment to explore the undiscovered space in a ways that are open and peaceful. This memorandum establishes the 37th Artemis Accord that Switzerland has signed. Now it is the turn of Greece and Uruguay who joined in February.

In his statement Councillor Parmelin pointed out that Switzerland had had a long history of collaborations with different agencies including NASA in the area of human space exploration, space sciences and Earth sciences.

The Artemis Accords codify norms for sustainable and peaceful ventures in outer space for all the countries that are part of the Artemis program. This program, which targets humans to return to the moon and sustainability and to the moon, involves the missions like Artemis 1 has been launched in November 2022 ahead and Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 are set to launch in the years 2025 and 2026 respectively.


The Artemis Accords being the original initiative of the US government and eight other nations during 2020, they then seek to go beyond the regulations of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty by creating clearer grounds for cooperation and coordination in space. Through every new signatory, the Accords get more and more support and create a sound basis for collective space explorations.