NASA tracking station: green light from the Cortes Generales

The Cortes Generales have completed the authorization of the scientific cooperation agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United States of America on the NASA tracking station, done in Madrid on June 10, 2024. The Congress of Deputies granted authorization on February 12, 2025, and the Senate on March 12, 2025. The treaty appears in the annual compilation of international agreements of the Cortes Generales published on December 31, 2025.

The compilation brings together the international treaties whose parliamentary processing was completed during 2025 and details, for each one, the publication of the text and the authorizations of both chambers. In the case of the tracking station, the text of the agreement was published in the BOCG Cortes Generales, Series A, No. 81, of September 27, 2024, before seeking the authorization of the Chambers.

Parliamentary procedure

The authorization was recorded in the official gazettes of the Cortes with the following references:

Text of the agreement: BOCG Cortes Generales, Series A, No. 81, of September 27, 2024.
Authorization by the Congress of Deputies, on February 12, 2025: BOCG Congress of Deputies, Series C, No. 46-3, of February 18, 2025.
Authorization by the Senate, on March 12, 2025: BOCG Senate, Section III, No. 230_2110, of March 14, 2025.

A bilateral framework renewed since 2003

Cooperation between Spain and the United States regarding this facility is not new: it dates back to 2003 and has been periodically renewed through exchanges of notes:

Original scientific cooperation agreement on the tracking station, done in Madrid on January 28, 2003.
One-year extension processed in 2013 (BOCG Cortes Generales, Series A, No. 218, of October 25, 2013).
Exchange of notes of August 31 and September 4, 2015, which extended and amended the 2003 agreement (BOCG Cortes Generales, Series A, No. 57, of March 10, 2017).
The agreement done in Madrid on June 10, 2024, renews the framework for scientific cooperation between the two countries.

Strategic infrastructure in Robledo de Chavela

The facility that is the subject of the agreement is the NASA Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela (Madrid). Its location is reflected in official publications: the BOE includes the resolution publishing the agreement between the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the National Institute for Aerospace Technology “Esteban Terradas” (INTA) regarding the meteorological station located on the site (BOE-A-2026-457), which describes the INTA facilities within the complex and the observation network deployed there.

With the authorization of the Cortes, the agreement is now ready for ratification and subsequent entry into force, a step that reinforces Spain’s role in space exploration and the projection of its scientific and technological activity in a strategic sector. The station’s permanence on Spanish territory, endorsed by a legal framework renewed for more than two decades, consolidates the country as a platform for the missions of the United States space agency.

Source: Laws of the Cortes Generales (International Agreements 2025), December 31, 2025 (official reference: BOCG Cortes Generales, Series A, No. 81, of September 27, 2024).