Israel Signs Onto NASA-led Artemis Program to Land Astronauts on Moon
The Fellowship | February 1, 2022
Israel officially signed onto a space program led by NASA on Wednesday to land astronauts on the lunar surface and establish a long-term human presence on the moon as a warm-up for future missions to Mars.
The agreement to join the Artemis program establishes principles of cooperation on space exploration and human presence on the moon and will allow Israel to embark on new space research collaborations, both commercial and economic, with other participating countries, said the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology on Wednesday.
Over a dozen countries have already signed on to the NASA-led Artemis Accords including Australia, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan and South Korea. Israel is the 15th country to join the program, which is led by NASA in partnership with the European Space Agency, US commercial spaceflight operators and participating nations’ space agencies.
Read more about Jessica Meir, a Jewish-American astronaut, who might become the first woman to set foot on the moon as a part of the Artemis lunar mission.