Albania Signs the Artemis Accords, Becoming the 73rd Nation in NASA's Space Coalition

Albania's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Ferit Hoxha signed the Artemis Accords on Monday at NASA headquarters in Washington, making Albania the 73rd nation to commit to peaceful and transparent space exploration, NASA said.

NASA hosted the ceremony at its Washington headquarters on September 21. Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to the United States Ervin Bushati and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Space and Environment Connor Tomlinson also took part, according to NASA's account of the event.

NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson welcomed the signing. "The relationship between our nations goes back more than a century," Anderson said. "Today, we extend that partnership into space."

Hoxha spoke at the ceremony as well. "By taking this step, Albania affirms its commitment to peaceful, transparent, sustainable, and cooperative exploration of space," he said. "Humanity's greatest achievements are realized not in isolation, but through partnerships."

Albania is not new to working with NASA or with American space infrastructure. In January 2023, Albania launched two Earth-observation satellites, Albania-1 and Albania-2, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said. That detail puts some weight behind Monday's signing: this is a country that has already put hardware in orbit, not one just dipping a toe in.

Albania has also taken part in NASA's Space Apps Challenge, hosting local events that connect students and technologists with NASA's open Earth and space science data. NASA describes Space Apps as the world's largest annual global hackathon, with participants in more than 150 countries.

The Artemis Accords themselves were established in 2020 by NASA and the U.S. State Department, along with seven other founding nations, NASA said. The accords were written in response to growing interest in lunar activity from both governments and private companies. They set out practical principles for how nations should behave as they explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Those principles, as NASA lists them, include exploring peaceably and transparently, rendering aid to those in need, making scientific data openly available, avoiding interference with other nations' activities, and preserving historically significant sites and artifacts.

The pace of signings has been steady. NASA welcomed Mauritius as the 70th signatory in July 2026, Serbia as the 71st that same month, Djibouti as the 72nd in September, and now Albania as the 73rd, all according to NASA announcements published on nasa.gov.

What signing the accords opens up, in practical terms, is not spelled out in the record. NASA says that nations who sign "open the door to opportunities for future lunar exploration with NASA," but no specific missions, roles, or timelines for Albania are named in the agency's announcement.

The full text of the Artemis Accords is available at nasa.gov/artemis-accords.

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