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Uzbekistan became the 77th signatory of the Artemis Accords during a ceremony in Samarkand, committing to peaceful and transparent civil space exploration. The signing came during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as NASA continues building a coalition for its Moon Base and return-to-the-Moon efforts.
IBM and NASA have open-sourced a lunar foundation model that integrates multi-sensor data to map the Moon, aiding in tasks like crater mapping, volcanic history investigation, and ice detection.
NASA is switching to a simpler spacesuit design for its initial lunar missions to accelerate the Artemis program, aiming for a Moon return by 2028 in collaboration with Axiom Space.
Botswana becomes the 68th country to sign the Artemis Accords, committing to peaceful, transparent, and responsible civil space exploration as part of NASA's Artemis program.
NASA notes that Group D nations in the 2026 FIFA World Cup (Paraguay, Australia, Türkiye, and presumably others) are all involved in lunar exploration through the Artemis Accords or national plans, connecting sports and space exploration.
Blue Origin announces the Power Tower, a deployable solar array system for its Blue Moon MK1 lander, designed to capture near-continuous sunlight at the lunar poles to sustain Moon Base operations.
NASA will host a news conference on May 26, 2026, to provide updates on the Moon Base strategy and missions, highlighting progress toward a sustained lunar presence.