The Servicio Canario de Salud (SCS) and NASA officially signed a cooperation agreement on Monday. The public hospitals in Tenerife — the Hospital Universitario de Canarias and the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria — will serve as the emergency reference zone for the Artemis programme, NASA’s initiative to return humans to the Moon.
A NASA delegation led by chief medical officer James D. Polk visited the hospitals on Monday and said the facilities had made a «great impression», particularly the hyperbaric chamber, trauma unit, intensive care and emergency department.
The background: the Artemis programme plans a total of nine missions. For most of them, the flight path passes over the Atlantic. If a launch has to be aborted, astronauts will land at sea — and the nearest hospitals with the necessary equipment are in the Canary Islands.
Adasat Goya, director of the SCS, said the Canaries had been designated as the reference zone for the West African coast, Macaronesia and parts of the European coast. A direct emergency contact for Artemis III has already been established.
The connection between the Canary Islands and space is not new. The Maspalomas Space Centre has supported NASA missions since 1961 — from Mercury through Gemini and Apollo to the current Artemis II, which launched successfully on 3 April.