Eduardo González
This past Tuesday, the Council of Ministers authorized the signing and provisional application of the scientific cooperation agreement between Spain and the United States for the use of the NASA monitoring station (MPJC) in the Madrid municipalities of Robledo de Chavela and Navas del Rey.
Spain and the United States have been extending from time to time the agreement they signed in 1964 in support of lunar and planetary exploration programs and manned and unmanned space flights, through the establishment of a monitoring station in Robledo de Chavela.
On January 28, 2003, the Scientific Cooperation Agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America was signed in Madrid, confirming the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the use of certain lands and rights of way in the municipalities of Robledo de Chavela and Navas del Rey, as well as their existing facilities and equipment there.
This agreement was extended by an Exchange of Notes dated June 4 and 5, 2014 and a new Exchange of Notes dated August 31 and September 4, 2015 that extended its validity until November 17, 2024.
A little over a year ago, on May 12, 2023, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced at the White House the upcoming signing of the new agreement, which replaces the one from 2003 and which, once signed, will begin to be applied provisionally on November 17, 2024, if it had not entered into force before that date, as specified by the Council of Ministers.
The Madrid Complex for Foreign Communications, located in Robledo de Chavela, is part of a global network of NASA stations, known as ‘Deep Space Network’ (DSN), along with the Goldstone (California) and Canberra (Australia). It so happens that the bases of Robledo de Chavela, Maspalomas (Gran Canaria) and Cebreros (Ávila) – three centers dependent on NASA in Spain – were the first in the world to receive the messages from ‘Apollo XI’, whose mission culminated on July 20, 1969 with the first arrival of man to the Moon.
