Wildfires near Madrid have swept through NASA’s Deep Space Communications Complex at Robledo de Chavela, one of three global sites used to communicate with spacecraft including Voyager 1 and the James Webb Space Telescope. All personnel were evacuated safely, and NASA has moved operational support to its Goldstone facility in California, avoiding any interruption to spacecraft communications; the eventual damage to equipment is not yet known.

The Spanish emergency has prompted evacuation orders affecting 60,000 people, while major fires in France are also threatening the Bordeaux area; around 200,000 people have been told to leave across both countries. Record summer heat, intensified by climate change, has dried vegetation and increased fire risk, with a brief Mediterranean cooling forecast before temperatures could rise to as much as 10°C above normal again.