Botswana signs the Artemis Accords

WASHINGTON — The African nation of Botswana is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords outlining best practices for space exploration. David Tshere, Botswana’s minister of communications and innovation, signed the Accords on behalf of the country during a ceremony at NASA Headquarters on June 25. Botswana is the 68th country to sign the Accords since they were rolled out in 2020 and the ninth to do so this year. “Botswana, like many countries who have interest in space exploration, found it important to become a signatory to the Artemis Accords to promote safe, transparent and sustainable civil space exploration and to advance international cooperation under a shared framework for responsible activities in space,” he said at the event. Botswana is a newcomer to spaceflight, having launched its first satellite, a cubesat called BOTSAT-1, on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission last year. The satellite, built by a university in the country with the assistance of Bulgarian smallsat developer EnduroSat, carried a hyperspectral imager from South African company Dragonfly Aerospace. He noted that the milestone was important enough that the country’s president, Duma Gideon Boko, attended the launch and that the date of the launch is now marked as National Space Day in Botswana. Tshere said he hoped that signing the Accords would lead to a space cooperation working group between Botswana and the United States. “As a newcomer to space exploration, Botswana looks to the U.S.A. not only to help build our national capacity but also to partner with us in identifying and maximizing the opportunities that arise from our participation in the Artemis framework.” While the Artemis Accords have been used to help refine aspects of key space treaties, such as the Outer Space Treaty, NASA’s current leadership has stated it also sees the accords as a vehicle for greater international participation in the Artemis lunar exploration effort. “We are building a permanent, sustainable moon base, and NASA has invited every Artemis Accords signatory to take part in this endeavor,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson at the event. Others noted that cooperating with Botswana has benefits beyond space, given the country’s mining economy. “I applaud the Trump administration’s focus on securing America’s critical access to rare earth elements in Africa, and space diplomacy will play a key role in building lasting relationships,” Mike Gold, president of Redwire Space and a former NASA official who helped lead development of the Artemis Accords, told SpaceNews. “We must leverage our leadership in space generally and the Artemis program specifically to combat China’s aggressive outreach in Africa.” The signing comes as the State Department is enhancing its space diplomacy efforts. The department announced June 24 that it had named Greg Autry as a senior adviser for space in its Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, which includes sp…