Washington: According to a senior NASA official, India needs to be a part of the Artemis team, which brings together like-minded countries to conduct civil space exploration, because the country is a global power and one of the few with independent access to space.
The Artemis Accords are a collection of principles for civil space exploration and utilisation in the 21st century, based on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (OST). It's an American-led mission to put humans back on the moon by 2025, with Mars and beyond as the ultimate prize.
As of May 2023, there are 25 signatories to the Artemis Accords, and on Friday, Bhavya Lal, assistant administrator for technology, policy, and strategy in the office of the NASA Administrator, told that she hoped India would join the 26th signatory.—Inputs from Agencies