A wildfire has swept through NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, roughly 65 kilometres west of the Spanish capital, forcing the full evacuation of the facility on Friday. All personnel were safely removed, with more than 90 employees escorted out by Guardia Civil between the morning and late afternoon.
The fire burned through the site itself, though all staff are accounted for and unharmed. Spacecraft communications were transferred to the network's companion stations in Goldstone, California, and Canberra, Australia, which together with Madrid form the Deep Space Network.
The broader blaze has displaced tens of thousands across the Madrid region, with around 63,000 people evacuated or told to shelter indoors. The European Union is dispatching firefighting aircraft to Spain and France to assist. The complex, established in 1964 under a joint agreement between Spain, the United States, INTA and NASA, is a key node in planetary mission communications.