One of NASA’s most important deep space observatories was hit by the Spanish forest fires

Climate change is now a problem for the entire solar system. On Friday, wildfires in Spain swept through one of three observatories used by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration to communicate with spacecraft, including Voyager 1, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the recently completed Artemis mission around the moon.

Spain declared a state of forest fire emergency after several blazes burned out of control near Madrid, with evacuation orders issued for 60,000 people. The affected area includes Robledo de Chavela, a municipality close to the Deep Space Communications Complex operated by NASA.

Dramatic images captured by news photographers showed the radio telescopes surrounded by smoke and fire. A NASA spokesperson said in an email to WIRED that the agency has successfully evacuated all employees.

They added that although the fire has now passed through the observatory complex, it is still unclear how much the fire has affected sensitive equipment inside. “Any potential damage will be assessed when it is safe to do so,” the spokesperson said. They added that if conditions permit, a site assessment could be conducted on Saturday.

For now, NASA said it has “seamlessly transitioned support for mission operations to the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California, ensuring uninterrupted service and support for spacecraft communications.”

The facility in Spain, along with other facilities in Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, California, constitute what NASA calls “the largest and most sensitive scientific communications system in the world.” The network allows NASA to transmit information from Earth to spacecraft, including the most distant man-made object in our solar system, Voyager 1. It is also used to transmit data from the James Webb Space Telescope and send commands to other spacecraft. The sites also contribute to radio astronomy observations. Suffice it to say, it is a very important set of tools for understanding the solar system.

Spain is not the only country facing a forest fire crisis. Fires are also spiraling out of control in France, where beachgoers saw the sky turn orange and waves of ash washing onto the beach as firefighters worked to prevent the flames from spreading to the capital of the Bordeaux wine region.

“We learned in the middle of the afternoon that after the winds shifted, it turned into a large, self-sustaining fire that is very difficult to control,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told national television channel Tf1. “It is now moving east towards the Bordeaux urban area. We will reorganize our response so that we can fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing,” he added.

Nearly 200,000 people have been asked to evacuate from across the two countries.

Europe has seen record high temperatures this summer, driven by the frequent formation of heat domes over the continent and the UK, as well as climate change. Hot weather can dry out plants, causing forests to catch fire when struck by a stray spark. Similar stories have occurred in other parts of the world recently, from Ontario, Canada, to the Pacific Northwest in the United States.

Cold weather is expected to reach the Mediterranean over the weekend, which should help firefighters control the fires. But the respite will be short: temperatures are expected to rise again on Monday and continue to rise throughout the week, eventually reaching 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal. This could exacerbate any wildfires that may still be burning in Spain or France, or help spark new ones.