March 2022. King Felipe VI inaugurated a new antenna, named DSS53, in the Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) that the North American NASA and the Spanish Ministry of Defense manage in the small Madrid town of Robledo de Chavela, in the western mountain range. The antenna is a giant of 400 tons, a diameter of 34 meters and a disk whose structure is made up of 348 panels. Installing it took almost five years of work.
The antenna, the sixth that this complex has, has since been used to support the communications of the interplanetary ships that NASA launches into space, such as Mars. It is also necessary to provide support to the rest of the antenna network, already overloaded by the unstoppable increase in traffic in space. We must not forget that the Robledo de Chavela facilities were part of the system that helped monitor the arrival of man to the moon in 1969. A milestone.
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But science has collided with bureaucracy. Because the Robledo de Chavela City Council (4,700 residents) has since claimed a municipal tax, the Tax on Constructions, Installations and Works (ICIO). “We had to grant three licenses to carry out the work“, one for the assembly of the antenna pedestal, another for its assembly and another for the urbanization of the area,” he explains. Fernando Married to Infobae Spain, the current mayor of Robledo, from UPPR, a local party. In total, the amounts owed amount to 1.26 million euros. Who has to pay them? “The truth is that I don’t know,” the councilor is honest. Because the defendant in court is the Esteban Terrada National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), dependent on the Ministry of Defense, although the antennas are managed by NASA. “We don’t care who pays, as long as someone pays,” he says.
Because the issue ended up in court. Robledo issued the tax receipts and INTA appealed to contentious-administrative courts. This state entity argued that it was exempt from any tax settlement because this was regulated by a Scientific Cooperation agreement signed in March 2003 between Spain and the US so that NASA could work in these facilities. On the other hand, the Robledo City Council alleged that, according to this international agreement, “the tax exemption only applies to supply and service contracts, but not to works contracts,” says Councilor Casado.
What does that agreement say? Textually that “the Government of Spain, upon request, will adopt the necessary measures to facilitate the entry of material, equipment, supplies, merchandise or other goods provided by the Government of the United States for the specific purposes of this agreement (…. ) The importation of goods for exclusive use for the specific purposes of this agreement will be exempt from all taxes, right or any other encumbrance in accordance with current legislation.” It also notes that “the Government of Spain will take appropriate measures to exempt NASA from any tax, right or encumbrance relating to the ownership or trade of goods or relating to any participation in goods used for any activity related to this agreement.” .
Robledo insists that this tax exemption refers to contracts for supplies and services, not works. “This installation is already exempt from other municipal taxes, such as IBI. All this is unfair. The Spanish State should compensate us. How is it possible that an international agreement harms the interests of a municipal corporation. Our annual budget does not reach seven million. That they owe us 1.2 million is a lot of money,” says Casado. In the first instance, a Madrid court partially dismissed INTA’s appeal, considering the tax exemption does not apply to works contracts. But INTA appealed to the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid, which ended up ruling in February 2024 against the Consistory. But in Robledo they do not give up and have presented three appeals (one for each tax settlement owed) before the Supreme Court, appeals that have been admitted. The last word, therefore, belongs to the High Court. “We are optimistic,” they explain from Robledo. For now, the antenna continues to monitor space.
