This is a step towards strengthening our cooperation with the United States and other close partners such as Japan on space exploration missions. The Artemis Accords are a policy statement setting out the principles that will guide the peaceful exploration of space through the Artemis Program. The Artemis Accords reaffirm the universal international legal framework established by the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies and by other multilateral treaties on outer space negotiated at the United Nations.

The Artemis Accords offer broad opportunities for the Czech space industry, science and research in collaboration with other partners through the Artemis Program. The Czech Republic has a long tradition in space technology development and space research. The Czech space ecosystem is constantly growing, participating in scientific and research space missions, and commercial projects. Prague is also the seat of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), which is responsible for systems such as Galileo and Copernicus. Since, the European Union’s space research has been managed from Prague. This fact is the culmination of a series of events that began with the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Space Agency in 2008, followed by the placement of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) in Prague in 2012 and the opening of ESA BIC space incubators in Prague in 2016 and in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second biggest city, in 2018.  The ESA BIC Czech Republic incubators support Czech startups that use space patents, satellite navigation and/or remote Earth observation for their products and services. The goal is to bring these technologies into everyday life and to help innovative projects to participate in space missions within the European space programme. Nearly thirty Czech technology startups have passed through the incubators.

“I see it as a historic signature. We are joining our likeminded partners in advancing peaceful, cooperative, and sustainable exploration of space,” said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. “Czechia’s space ecosystem has a lot to offer. We believe that this signature will kick-start the development of an institutional and industrial cooperation within the Artemis community, as well as directly between Czechia and the U.S., in the field of space activities, including those leading to a potential space flight.”