Following the evacuation of personnel from a Deep Space Network ground station imperiled by wildfires in Spain, NASA has announced that the site has avoided major damage. The site, known as the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex, is run jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency.
NASA's press secretary Bethany Stevens announced on social media that on July 25th, antennas and buildings appeared to have been spared fire-related damage, which affected mainly vegetation and paved areas The agencies will take more comprehensive looks later, as allowed by conditions.
The site west of Madrid, which has five 34-meter antennas and a 70-meter antenna, is one of three stations in the Deep Space Network. The others are near Canberra, Australia and in Goldstone, California. Both of those sites were actively communicating with spacecraft of as July 24th but the antennas at the Madrid station are - for now - off the air. It was unclear when the antennas would be operational again. The cooperative nature of the three sites permitted the California station to pick up initial responsibility for communications before transferring that to the station in Australia.
