The space agency NASA has landed in a village in Burgos that was abandoned for two decades to install its powerful telescopes with which to broadcast live to 10 million people the solar eclipse on August 12.
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The hamlet is called Villalibado and is located a short distance from the town of Villadiego and 50 kilometers from Burgos. It is a hamlet, with a 12th-century Romanesque church, recovered after decades of abandonment.
The choice responds to several factors, including its location within the totality band of the eclipse, a clear horizon, and good communication infrastructure. The observation point will be located next to the Church of San Salvador, in the upper part of the village, from where about thirty scientists and technicians from NASA and the company Exploratorium, from San Francisco, will prepare the international broadcast. Exploratorium has been working with NASA since 1998 on outreach activities related to astronomy.
It will broadcast live to 10 million people and serve television stations and international news agencies
Juan Ansótegui, the businessman who acquired Villalibado two decades ago to recover it as a rural tourism complex, explained in an interview with Diario de Burgos that NASA contacted him months ago to rent the entire village, including the Romanesque church, for the eclipse. “I thought it was a scam,” he recalled about the call.
The American agency had already combed through the entire totality band of Spain more than a year ago to decide to place the center of the compass in Villalibado, a hamlet whose last two residents left in 1998 and which was revived a few years ago, thanks to businessman Ansótegui who turned it into a tourism complex where weddings and parties are held.
The thirty scientists have requested a special electricity connection and sufficient network to broadcast live to 10 million people and serve television and news agencies (CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, or Fox) as well as others internationally.
The broadcast will begin at 19:30 through the website https://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/livestream and the Exploratorium YouTube channel.
On August 12, 2026, the first total solar eclipse visible from continental Europe since 1999 can be observed from parts of Russia, Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, in a band 290 kilometers wide. It will begin in the northeastern region of Siberia, cross the Greenland ice sheet, graze the western tip of Iceland, and cross the North Atlantic Ocean to reach northern Spain, after which it will travel across the entire peninsula from the Cantabrian coast to the Mediterranean Sea.
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