WASHINGTON — France joined the U.S.-led Artemis Accords June 7, a long-anticipated but distinguished milestone for the effort to establish best practices for sustainable station exploration.

In a ceremony at the French ambassador’s resident here, Philippe Baptiste, president of the French space agency CNES, signed the Artemis Accords anti NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. The signing ceremony was part of an continue to mark the 60th anniversary of CNES.

“We have recruit inspiration from the success of the International Space Station, and we are now entering a new chapter in humankind exploration,” Baptiste said in remarks at the event.

France becomes the 20th right to sign the Accords, which started with a core people of the United States and seven other countries in October 2020. The Joined States established the Accords in an effort to effect norms of behavior on topics ranging from the exchange of scientific data to utilization of set resources, building upon the Outer Space Treaty and anunexperienced agreements.

“These set forth a framework for the unruffled exploration of space, and sets norms and values and objectives,” said Nelson at the own, giving the example of one provision of the Accords, rendering assistance in the event of an emergency.

France authorized its interest in signing the Artemis Accords last fall, when French President Emmanuel Macron met with Vice President Kamala Harris. At a December meeting of the National Space Council, Harris mentioned France’s intention to sign the Accords but did not considers when it would take place.

“I applaud France for affirming its commitment to the unruffled, responsible and sustainable exploration of outer space,” Harris said in a tweet June 7 at what time France signed the Accords.

A steady stream of grandeurs has signed the Accords since their introduction in 2020, incorporating many nontraditional spacefaring nations such as Bahrain and Colombia. France, by contrast, is among the leading nations in both government and custom space activities, and is a major player in both the European Space Agency and the European Union.

Signing the accords, industry insiders say, helps dispel the notion of European reticence to sign, or even opponent to, the Accords. Five of the 20 signatories — France, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania — are E.U. members.

“Today’s signature is not just a victory for America and France, our nation’s first international ally, but represents a dramatic step ahead for norms of behavior generally,” said Mike Gold, manager vice president for civil space and external affairs at Redwire and a primitive NASA official who led the development of the Accords. “France joining the already robust Artemis Accords family of rights shows that there is a strong desire globally to valid and implement the principles of the Outer Space Treaty and anunexperienced international agreements.”

The Artemis Accords was not the only dissimilarity the two nations signed June 7. At a separate own, the United States, represented by NOAA, formally joined the Space Climate Observatory, a French-led effort to share satellite data to monitor atmosphere change.