Ireland will sign the Artemis Accords on Monday, May 4, at 3 p.m. EDT during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will host the signing with Ireland's Ambassador to the United States Geraldine Byrne Nason and Irish Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke.
The Artemis Accords represent a bilateral agreement committing signatories to safe and sustainable lunar exploration. Nations that sign pledge to conduct space activities for peaceful purposes, respect existing space law, and support transparent debris mitigation practices. Ireland becomes another addition to the growing coalition of countries committing to responsible space conduct as NASA prepares astronauts for lunar missions under the Artemis program.
The accords establish norms for resource extraction, public safety zones around lunar landing sites, and information sharing on space activities. More than two dozen nations have signed since the accords debuted in 2020, creating an international framework for the coming era of sustained lunar operations. Artemis aims to land humans on the Moon by 2025 and establish long-term surface presence before pursuing Mars exploration.