White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National Park is located within the range.

Significant events

*The first atomic bomb (code named Trinity) was test detonated at Trinity Site near the northern boundary of the range on 16 July 1945, seven days after the White Sands Proving Ground was established.
*After the conclusion of World War II, 100 long-range German V-2 rockets that were captured by U.S. military troops were brought to WSMR. Of these, 67 were test-fired between 1946 and 1951 from the White Sands V-2 Launching Site. (This was followed by the testing of American rockets, which continues to this day, along with testing other technologies.)
*NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the Northrop Strip at WSMR on 30 March 1982 as the conclusion to mission STS-3. This was the only time that NASA used WSMR as a landing site for the space shuttle.

Incidents

Just after 4 PM on 15 May 1947, a V-2 fired from White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico veered off course and landed 4 miles northeast of Alamogordo, New Mexico.Jim Eckle
(15 May 2022) Two crashes in two weeks: In 1947, rockets launched from White Sands landed in Alamogordo, Juárez
/ref> At 7:32 PM two weeks later, a German V-2 sounding rocket fired from White Sands Proving Ground veered off course, crashed and exploded on top of a rocky knoll 3.5 miles south of the Juárez, Mexico business district, leaving a 24-foot-deep by 50-foot-wide crater. On 11 July 1970, the United States Air Force launched an Athena sounding rocket, equipped with re-entry vehicle V-123-D, from the Green River Launch Complex in Utah. While its intended target was inside of WSMR, the rocket instead flew south and impacted 180–200 miles south of the Mexican border in the Mapimi Desert in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Durango.

Geography

As the largest military installation in the United States, WSMR encompasses almost including parts of Doña Ana, Otero, Socorro, Sierra, and Lincoln counties in southern New Mexico.

Nearby military bases

Holloman Air Force Base borders WSMR to the east; and WSMR borders the McGregor Range Complex at Fort Bliss to the south (southeast Tularosa Basin and on Otero Mesa) making them contiguous areas for military testing.

Nearby cities

WSMR is located between Las Cruces, New Mexico to the west, Alamogordo, New Mexico to the east, and Chaparral, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas to the south.

National park and wildlife refuge

White Sands National Park and the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge are federally-protected natural areas contained within the borders of WSMR.

Transportation

Major highways

New Mexico State Road 213 enters the range from the south from Chaparral, New Mexico and terminates at U.S. Highway 70, which traverses the southern part of the range in a west-northeast direction and is subject to periodic road closures during test firings at the range.

Nearby airports

El Paso International Airport is the nearest airport with regularly scheduled commercial flights. There have been no regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights from Las Cruces International Airport since 25 July 2005, when Westward Airways ceased operations; although General aviation, New Mexico Army National Guard (4 UH-72 Lakota Helicopters), private charters and CAP, among others, still use the airport.

National Historic Landmarks

The Trinity Site, selected in November 1944 for the Trinity nuclear test conducted on 16 July 1945, was designated a National Historic Landmark district on 21 December 1965, and added to the National Register of Historic Places on 15 October 1966. The White Sands V-2 Launching Site used for a V-2 static test firing on 15 March 1946, and for the first US V-2 launch on 16 April 1946, received landmark designation on 3 October 1985.

Current operations

The White Sands Test Center, headquartered at the WSMR post area, has branches for manned tactical systems and electromagnetic radiation, and conducts missile testing and range recovery operations. "WSMR Main Post" includes several smaller areas such as the housing area, golf course, "Navy Area", and "Technical Area" The WSMR Museum offers tours and exhibits including a V-2 rocket returned in May 2004 after restoration. The White Sands Missile Range Hall of Fame inducts members such as the first range commander, Colonel Harold Turner (1945–1947), in 1980. A recreational shooting range just inside the "El Paso gate" on the south is outside of the Post Area.

The 1972 DoD Centers for Countermeasures (CCM) evaluates precision guided munitions and other devices in electronic counter- and counter-countermeasures environments. Other operations on WSMR land include the Launch Abort Flight Test Complex for the Pad Abort-1, the White Sands Launch Complex 37 built for Nike Hercules tests, the White Sands Launch Complex 38 built for Nike Zeus tests with Launch Control Building now used for Patriot missile firings, the North Oscura Peak facility of the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate, and the 1963 NASA White Sands Test Facility's ground station for Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, and the SDO ground station with two antennas.

Chronology

*1930: Robert Goddard began rocket testing in New Mexico.
*1941-04-13: US World War II preparations established the Army Air Base, Alamogordo
*1942: Biggs Army Airfield construction began near El Paso (1947 Biggs AFB, 1973 Biggs AAF)--the region's nearby Deming Army Air Field, Ft Sumner Army Air Field, and South Aux Fid #1 transferred to "Army Div Engrs" in 1946.
*1940s: When the range was formed, ranchers' land was leased and, in the 1970s, taken permanently to expand the area available for testing.

USAAF ranges

*1941-12: Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range established near the "West Texas Bombardier Triangle".
*1941-12: Executive Order No. 9029 canceled grazing leases on the newly established Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range.
*1942-07: Goddard's rocket research group moved from Roswell, New Mexico, to Annapolis, Maryland.
*1944-02: War Department and the Corps of Engineers' Ordnance Department teams looked for a US missile test site.
*1945-07-13: McDonald Ranch House, Manhattan Project location for the final assembly of the prototype Fat Man plutonium bomb.
*1945-07-16: Trinity test of the plutonium bomb, the first nuclear weapon tested in the world.

White Sands Proving Ground

*1945-02-20: The Secretary of War approved establishment of WSPG.
*1945-04-01: The first Private F launch was at WSPG. (Not Fort Bliss's Antiaircraft and Guided Missile Center, which was established 6 July 1946.)
*1945-06-25: WSPG construction began with drilling of water wells.
*1945-07: First of 300 railroad cars of German V-2 components began to arrive at Las Cruces, New Mexico.
*1945-09: The blockhouse at Army Launch Area 1 (later Launch Complex 33) was completed.
*1945-09-16: First WAC Corporal test firing.
*1945-11: GE contractors began to identify, sort, and reassemble V-2 components in Building 1538
Assembly Building 1).

*1946: 35 of the Operation Paperclip scientists from Germany were working at WSPG.
*1946-05-29: The 4th U.S. V-2 launch was tracked by two White Sands based AN/MPQ-2 stations.
*1946 summer: New WSPG quarters were completed and the Medical Detachment and 3 batteries moved from Ft Bliss.
*1946-09: First static firing of a Nike missile was at WSPG.

New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range

*1947 (late): AMC shifted Army Air Force guided missile programs to Alamogordo in March 1947 and established inter-service New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range at the end of the year
*1947-11-14: The USAF's Alamogordo Guided Missile Test Base (AGMTB) had its first ramjet-configured GAPA missile launch (39th for GAPA).
*1948–05-13 to 1949-04-21: First six flight attempts for the Project ''Bumper'' two-stage V-2 SRBM/WAC Corporal two-stage research vehicles as the world's first "high-speed" multistage rockets to be launched.
*1948-07: USAF Project MX–774 commenced with the first RTV-A-2 Hiroc launch (from Launch Complex 33)
*1949-03: Holloman's 2754th Air Force Base unit gained "control of he WSPGsupport airfield, Condron Field…from Biggs Army Air Field at Fort Bliss."
*1949: German scientists transferred from New Mexico to Alabama (Dr. Ernst Steinhoff transferre
from WSPG to Holloman's Air Development Center.)

*1949-07: The range's Four Bits Peak Instrumentation Annex was assigned to the air force base (disposed on 30 September 1960).
*1951-07: The AGMTB became a sub-base of Florida's Air Force Missile Test Center until 31 August 1952. test installation
*1951-08-22: Broomstick Scientists in a unit of the 9393 Technical Service Unit conducted their first launch: the "TF-1" V-2 rocket. (Broomstick Sweepings publication ended after a 22 January 1952 general order transferred "1st Ord. GMS Bn." soldiers to Detachment No. 1, Station Complement.)
*1952-05-27: An aggregated 2,394,384 acres (4,680 sq miles) was set aside for the "Alamogordo bombing range, White Sands proving ground, and the Fort Bliss antiaircraft range".
*1952-09-01: Merger of Holloman bombing range and smaller White Sands Proving Grounds (WSPG) into WSPG
*1952-11: The range's Red Butte Instrumentation Annex was assigned to Holloman AFB (disposed on 22 November 1963).
*1953-06: USS Desert Ship (LLS-1) (Launch Complex 35) was built to test the Navy RIM-8 Talos missile.
*1957-02: The 9393rd Technical Unit, Ordnance, became the U.S. Army Garrison.
*1957-03-13: Nike Hercules satisfactory launch from White Sands

White Sands Missile Range

*1958-05-01: The test range was designated "White Sands Missile Range".
*1958-09-02: The Gold Hill Instrumentation Annex was assigned to Holloman Air Force Base (disposed on 30 September 1960).
*1958-10: Zeus Acquisition Radar site construction at the planned Launch Complex 38 began near an airstrip.
*: The long-range GE AN/FPS-17 Fixed Ground Radar at the Laredo Test Site tracked its first WSMR rocket.
*1959: Shavetail rocket tested.
*1959: An Iconorama large screen display as used for Pentagon C² was installed at WSMR.
*1962-03: Annual Service Practice was being conducted for Redstone missile crews.
*1963-03: Site preparation began for the Multi-function Array Radar.
*1963-06-05: President John F. Kennedy visited for the MEWS (Missile Exercise White Sands).
*1963-08-28: Apollo program Launch Escape System tests with the Little Joe II began at White Sands Launch Complex 36 (ended 1966).
*1963-11: The Loma (assigned December 1952), Rose Park (5 February 1950), & Twin Buttes (December 1949) instrumentation annexes transferred from Holloman Air Force Base to the Army.
*1963-11: Cincinnati Ohio area civic leaders visit White Sands Nike Zeus site as part of Operation Understanding
*1964-07-08: The first "successful Athena/ ABRES test missile as fired from Utah into WSMR".
*1965-11: first Sprint missile launch
*1967-10-21: Public Law 90-110 authorized $4,781,000 for WSMR construction.
*1972: WSMR had 3 RCA AN/FPS-16 Instrumentation Radars
*1983 thru 30 September 1993 - WSMR hosted the Simtel collection, the largest collection of free software and freeware available to the public on the ARPANET and Internet. It began as a copy of an MIT collection of CP/M software, and expanded to collect free software for other operating systems as well.
*1991 (late): Convair QF-106 Delta Dart drones based at Holloman Air Force Base began operating as Full-Scale Aerial Targets over WSMR.
*1993-08-18: The first McDonnell Douglas DC-X flight was from the White Sands Space Harbor
*2005: AIAA named the WSPG a Historic Aerospace Site.
*2007-11-14: Launch Complex 32 groundbreaking for the Orion Abort Test Booster.
*2010-05-06: Successful test of Orion Pad Abort System at Launch Complex 32
*2022-05-25: CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, traveling from the International Space Station, landed successfully at White Sands Space Harbor toward the northern portion of White Sands Missile Range

Education

Las Cruces Public Schools operates White Sands School on the missile range property.

See also

*McDonald Ranch House, location of the final assembly of the world's first nuclear weapon
* Kapustin Yar, the Soviet analog of WSMR
* Peenemunde Army Research Center, WWII German rocket center

References

External links

White Sands Missile Range Museum

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1948 establishments in New Mexico
Buildings and structures in Doña Ana County, New Mexico
Historic American Engineering Record in New Mexico
Military installations in New Mexico
Research installations of the United States Army
Tularosa Basin
Weapons test sites
Military in New Mexico