Eduardo González
The Council of Ministers has sent to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament) the scientific cooperation agreement between Spain and the United States for the use of the NASA tracking station (MPJC) in the Madrid municipalities of Robledo de Chavela and Navas del Rey, while authorizing the manifestation of Spain’s consent to be bound by the aforementioned Agreement.
Spain and the United States have been periodically extending the agreement they signed in 1964 in support of lunar and planetary exploration programmes and manned and unmanned space flights, by establishing a monitoring station in Robledo de Chavela.
On 28 January 2003, the Scientific Cooperation Agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America was signed in Madrid, confirming to 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 its facilities and equipment there.
Article 13 of the agreement provides for a duration of ten years, but provides that it may be extended by written agreement of the parties. 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, which extended its validity until November 17, 2024.
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. The text for the extension and provisional application of the agreement was signed in Madrid on June 10, 2024, subject to authorization by the Council of Ministers.
The Madrid Complex for External Communications, located in Robledo de Chavela, is part of a global network of NASA stations known as the ‘Deep Space Network’ (DSN), together with the stations in Goldstone (California) and Canberra (Australia). It so happens that the bases in Robledo de Chavela, Maspalomas (Gran Canaria) and Cebreros (Ávila) – three NASA centres in Spain – were the first in the world to receive messages from ‘Apollo XI’, whose mission culminated on 20 July 1969 with the first man landing on the Moon.
