NASA’s Robledo de Chavela station in Madrid turns 60: here’s its story

Pot in Madrid marks 60 years since the conclusion of the first agreement on scientific cooperation between both countries on the provision of land and rights of way in municipalities Robledo de Chavela and Navas del Rey in the northwest of the region. To promote this agreement, the Robledo de Chavela station was built.

This space had a certain meaning in some the most current missions recent history of space exploration, including the most important of them all: the 1969 moon landing.

NASA’s Madrid station has been integrated into Deep Space Network (NASA Deep Space Network, DSN), a network consisting of three centers (the other two being Goldstone in California and Canberra in Australia).

Each station consists of a 70-meter antenna and several 34-meter antennas. The one in Robledo de Chavela is the only one that has six operational antennas, since Goldstone and Canberra There are only four of them.

Today the network supports and facilitates communication with more than 40 missionsand the same is expected to happen with many others that will be launched in the coming years.

The agreement between Spain and the United States was signed on January 29, 1964, but Robledo de Chavela Station It only began operating in July 1965, when the Mariner 4 mission was the first to send back photographs of the surface of Mars.

Other missions in which this station took part include: Mariner 6 and 7in 1969, which came even closer to the surface of Mars. In addition to Pioneer 10 and 11 (1972 and 1973), which were the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt and make close flybys of Jupiter.

He also participated in missions Voyager 1 and 2which were launched to explore the outer planets of the solar system and made historic flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Scientific cooperation

In June this year, Spain and the United States signed an extension to the agreement. Agreement on scientific cooperation allowing NASA to use the tracking station at Robledo de Chavela for another fifteen years.

With this new version improve aspects practical operation of the station and the Spanish Space Agency, reports the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

A document reflecting decades cooperation between both countriesThe agreement was signed by Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs Diego Martinez Belio and US Ambassador to Spain Julissa Reynoso.

Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities Diana Morant stressed that the agreement “preserves the alliance between two countries united by the same idea of ​​democratic progress and involving science in the development of a better society.”

In addition, he noted that “Spain has placed space research among the strategic priorities of our policy, as it is an exceptional tool for innovation and social development.