On June 21, 2023, India’s Ambassador to the U.S., Taranjit Sandhu, leaned over a table at Washington, D.C.’s historic Willard Hotel to sign the document confirming India’s acceptance of the Artemis Accords. It was a relatively modest event amid a pageantry-filled state visit that has seen a slew of deals on technological cooperation. Like those other deals, India’s signing of the Artemis Accords was undoubtedly the result of careful preparatory work and hard-nosed quid pro quos.
However, the Artemis signing raises more questions than are easily answered. Why is an informal agreement on human conduct on the Moon considered such a big deal? Why did India not sign the Artemis Accords when they first came out in 2020? And what will India get out of Artemis?
Shooting for the Moon
