Mauritius has become the 70th signatory to the Artemis Accords and the seventh African nation to join the agreement, signing on Friday in Ébène. NASA's Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson and U.S. State Department officials witnessed the signing, which Mauritius' Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Research signed on behalf of the country. The Artemis Accords, established in 2020 by NASA and seven founding nations, commit signatories to explore space peacefully, share scientific data, render aid in emergencies, and preserve historically significant sites.
Mauritius has a long history with NASA dating to the 1960s and 1970s, when the agency used tracking stations there for satellite geodetic missions that supported navigation technology development from Apollo through Artemis. The Accords now invite all signatories, including Mauritius, to participate in NASA's sustained lunar outpost program under the Trump administration's 2025 National Space Policy directive. NASA expects more countries to sign the agreement in the coming months and years.