This is where it all started. The picture is not very good but there are very few left from those times. This picture was found and retouched by my friend Luis F. Rojo. Thanks Luis.

This is the Madrid Fresnedillas 26m station that supported all of the Apollo Program (and many others afterwards including Space Shuttle).

I started to work in Fresnedillas back in 1968, just before the launch of Apollo VII (the first manned Saturn flight).

This is MDSCC (Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex).

It has a 70m antenna, four 34m antennas, one 26m antenna (the one that was previously located at Fresnedillas and supported Apollo) and one 11m antenna which is used for interferometry.

One of the 34m antennas participates in an educational program with high schools and Universities by students connecting to it via internet and searching the skies.

The 26m antenna is now decommited and will probably be relocated to our Visitors Centre.

This memento was presented to me by the crew members of STS 1 for my participation in the mission.

I was manning the Mission OPS Console at Fresnedillas, Madrid, and our support during that mission was considered as outstanding .

The flag depicted in the frame actually flew aboard STS 1 and I am very proud of having it hanging from one of my walls.

At the Fresnedillas (where all the Apollo Project was supported from) lunar museum with the Spanish NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría.

Michael´s father is from Extremadura (west of Spain) while his mother is from the USA.

He flew in the Shuttle three times and one to the ISS in a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur.

With General Charles Duke and the 26 m antenna that supported Project Apollo (Among others including Space Shuttle) in the background.

Duke was the CapCom at the Houston Mission Control Centre during the landing of Apollo XI.

He also was the LM Pilot during Apollo XVI and has the speed record aboard the Lunar Rover at an incredible 17 km/h.

General Duke giving a lecture at the Visitor Centre in the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC).

I was trying to translate in real time (for the first time in my life) and had a hard time. In the end we all had a great time.

On a guided tour of the "NASA the space adventure" exhibition that was held in Madrid.

I am trying to explain to an heterogeneous group of people, including High School students and general visitors, what an "AGENA" stage was and what it was used for.