NASA has dubbed the 2015 Perseids as the must-see 2015 meteor shower and Gran Canaria is a great place to see them.

Published in News

The Maspalomas Space Station has saved 10,000 lives in 20 years by detecting distress signals from ships and planes. This is on top of its historic part in the Apollo moon landings.


The Maspalomas Space Station, also called the Canary Islands Space Centre, detects signals from distress beacons on ships and planes and from expeditions in remote areas. It then transmits their locations to the relevant emergency services. It is believed to have saved 10,000 lives in the past 20 years. That's more than one person per day!

 In December 2012 it picked up a distress signal from a sinking yacht over 500km from the Canary Islands. A Superpuma helicopter saved the crew before the yacht sank, and broke the world record for a long distance maritime rescue at the same time.

Maspalomas and the moon

Started in 1960 as a NASA satellite tracking station it was extended in the 1960s to act as a receiving station for transmissions from the Apollo spacecraft. It was the first place on Earth to receive Neil Armstrong's famous words from the moon in 1969:

"That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind"

Maspalomas' role in the moon landings was so important that Neil Armstrong himself visited the island just three months after returning from the moon. He flew to Gran Canaria aboard Air Force One along with fellow moonlanders Michael Collins y Edwin Aldrin and stayed at the Maspalomas-Oasis hotel for three nights.

By all accounts the astronauts had a good time in Gran Canaria even though it rained on their last day. They took a boat trip along the south coast, got on a camel, partied late into the night and enjoyed the food. Armstrong's wife liked mojo sauce so much that she took the recipe home with her.

While in Gran Canaria, Armstrong said that the moon was "a wonderful place, just like Maspalomas. The whole island is amazing".

You can see the receiving antennas of the space station from the roads between Maspalomas and Arguineguin. It is just up the hill from Pasito Blanco harbour. At this time visits are not possible.

Published in History

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  • The Best Gran Canaria Weather Forecast
    The Best Gran Canaria Weather Forecast

    The single most common question we get in the Gran Canaria Info group is...

    What is the weather going to be like during my holiday?

    The answer is almost always the same: If you are going to south Gran Canaria's resorts, it is very likely to be sunny every day. Yes, even in the winter. Yes, even though your weather app says it is going to be cloudy. Yes, even in January. And in February, etc.

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    This means that the forecast for Puerto Rico and other resorts includes weather and temperatrure predictions for inland and highland areas that are cooler and cloudier.

    So, instead of believing your current weather app use the Spanish weather service website called the AEMET. It's website has detailed and very accurate forecasts for individual resorts, town and even beaches.

    Here's the forecast for the Mogán area including Puerto Rico.

    The mobile website works very well in English although the app is only in Spanish at the moment.  

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