"In our opinion, US colleagues do not rule out the militarization of space in the case of necessity. It is this ambiguous wording that causes concerns," the Russian official said, saying that the Artemis Accords might be "in direct or collateral violation of commonly-recognized norms of international space law."
Throughout the year, NASA has been recruiting countries to sign the so-called Artemis Accords, which, among other things, entail that "All activities conducted under the Artemis program must be for peaceful purposes." Saveliev pointed out that the wording does not contain an explicit prohibition of military activities on the Moon.
The Artemis program was launched by the administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump in 2017 in a bid to resume manned missions to the Moon by 2024. The program is named after Greek mythology Moon goddess Artemis, the twin-sister of Apollo, the Greek god of the Sun after whom the first US Moon program was named. As part of the Apollo space program, six manned missions were sent to the Moon during the 1960s-70s.
NASA has been promoting the Artemis Accords as an international collection of rules of conduct in the exploration of outer space and the activities on the Moon. The document is supposed to be based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
The Artemis Accords were signed by Australia, Canada, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States on 13 October. Ukraine joined in as the ninth signatory a month later.
