Bulgaria joins NASA's space exploration partnership

Bulgarian officials and representatives of the U.S. State Department will sign the accords at a ceremony to be held at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, NASA said in a press release on Tuesday.

The Bulgarian government approved Bulgaria's accession to Artemis Accords last week.

NASA launched the Artemis Accords in 2020 with the aim of advancing peaceful deep-space exploration. Apart from the USA, the founding signatories are Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. At present, the accords involve a total of 28 countries, among which Romania, Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic. France, Spain and Italy are the only other Artemis signatories from Europe.

The programme is working to establish a long-term camp on the Moon and in the lunar orbit, both to conduct scientific activities through astronauts and robots and as a precursor to the exploration of Mars in future.