A wildfire forced the evacuation of NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Spain on Friday, leaving the Deep Space Network with only one operational 70-meter antenna in Australia. The NASA status website showed no activity at the Madrid site while antennas in California and Australia continued communicating with spacecraft including Voyager 2 and Juno. NASA emphasized personnel safety as the highest priority.

The European Space Agency's nearby Cebreros tracking station was also evacuated. Spanish authorities ordered more than 19,000 people from mountain towns west of Madrid to evacuate, deploying over 2,000 personnel and 10 aircraft. A summer heat wave and chronic drought have created severe fire conditions across Spain and France.

California's 70-meter antenna has been offline since last year after an accident "over-rotated" the structure, flooding its base with 200,000 gallons of glycol-contaminated water. Repairs are projected to cost $4.1-4.6 million and extend into 2028. The next Artemis lunar mission is now targeted for no earlier than 2028, reducing immediate demand on the diminished network.