How nations explore space together

Space exploration to benefit all humankind took a big step forward in the past year, as the number of countries committed to the Artemis Accords for responsible exploration surpassed 50.

In fact, 19 countries signed the Accords in the past 12 months — four (Austria, Liechtenstein, Panama and Thailand) as recently as December 2024.

The United States and seven other countries established the Artemis Accords, committing to cooperate in several ways. Principally, signatories agree to provide emergency assistance to any space explorers in distress, register space objects, plan for safe disposal of debris and publicly share scientific data.

Two signatories — the U.S. and India — plan a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2025. On December 17, 2024, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and India’s Ambassador to the United States Vinay Mohan Kwatra met with Indian Space Research Organization astronauts training for the mission at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson hailed increasing international participation through the Artemis Accords as one of numerous advances in 2024. “We deepened the commercial and international partnerships that will help NASA lead humanity back to the Moon and then to the red sands of Mars,” Nelson said.

Here are other space-related milestones from the past year:

Jupiter’s moon

On October 14, NASA launched its Europa Clipper spacecraft on a five-year, 2.9 billion kilometer journey to investigate whether Jupiter’s icy Europa moon could support life. The un-crewed, 30-meter spacecraft (pictured above in a NASA rendering) carries a microchip with the names of 2.6 million people from dozens of countries as part of NASA’s Message in a Bottle project.

One of Jupiter’s 95 moons, Europa is considered one of the solar system’s most likely environments to support life.

Great catch!

Using giant mechanical arms like chopsticks, the U.S. private sector company SpaceX caught a rocket on its return to a launchpad in Texas.

The first-of-its-kind feat followed an October 13 test launch of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket designed to carry future crews and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond. SpaceX says successfully catching the rocket required correctly meeting thousands of specifications.

Awe-inspiring eclipse

Ancient stone carvings reveal that total eclipses have fascinated humankind for millennia, and 2024 proved no different. Millions of people in the U.S., Canada and Mexico viewed an April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse.

Scientists and educators made the most of the eclipse to teach students and share research. Another total eclipse will not occur over the lower 48 U.S. states until 2044. (A total solar eclipse will occur over Alaska in 2033.)

The moon, again

On February 22, 2024, the Odysseus lander, built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines, touched down on the moon, delivering NASA research equipment that will inform future lunar exploration.

The NASA-supported mission was the first U.S. lunar landing since the last of the famed Apollo missions in December 1972. NASA’s Artemis program is continuing to work with the private sector and partner nations to return astronauts to the moon and explore Mars.