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White Sands Missile Range

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For the geography and ecology of the WSMR area, see White Sands, New Mexico and Basin and Range Province.
White Sands Missile Range (c1960)

White Sands Proving Ground (1945)

Alamogordo Bombing Range (1941)[1]
Part of United States Army
New Mexico, Southwestern United States
Outline of WSMR at the Tularosa Basin
WSMR location
Coordinates32°56′38″N 106°25′10″W / 32.94389°N 106.41944°W / 32.94389; -106.41944
Site information
Controlled byTest Center Commander
Open to
the public		WSMR Museum
Site history
Built9 July, 1945[2]
Built byOrdnance Corps (United States Army)[2]
Garrison information
Current
commander		BG Richard L. McCabe (2007- )
Past
commanders		Tom Berard, director (2005- )
BG David L. Mann (2009-)
GarrisonWhite Sands Missile Range Garrison
Occupants NASA White Sands Test Facility

AFRL Directed Energy Directorate at North Oscura Peak

DoD Centers for Countermeasures[3]

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a rocket range of almost 3,200 square miles (8,300 km2) in area, the largest military installation in the United States. WSMR includes the Oscura Range and the WSMR Otera Mesa bombing range.[4] WSMR and the 600,000-acre Fort Bliss Range Complex'[4] to the south, form a contiguous swath of territory[clarification needed] for military testing.[citation needed] The missile range is located in New Mexico.

External images
ATEC locations

Missile Ranger newspaper

Map with call-up areas

Current Operations

Chronology

1944 February: Major General Gladeon M Barnes, chief of the Technical Division of the Office of Chief of Ordnance in Washington, sent teams of the War Department and the Ordnance Department of the Corps of Engineers to look for a US site for missile research.[6]: 389 
1945 February 20: The Secretary of War approved the establishment of White Sands Proving Ground.[6]: 290 [7]: 246 
1945 Spring: Private F test firing[8]
1945 July 16: Trinity (nuclear test)
1945 July (end): 300 railroad cars of V-2 rocket components arrived at WSPG, with launches at launch complex 33.[7]: 246 
1945 September 26-October 25: The first firing tests of the WAC-Corporal were carried out at the WSPG.[7]: 253 
1946: 1st US V-2 rocket test (Hermes project, 1946)
1949: German rocket scientists of Operation Paperclip at WSPG and Fort Bliss moved to Redstone Arsenal.
1963-1966: Little Joe II Apollo program launch escape system tests at WSMR Launch Complex 36[9]
1982: STS-3 landed at WSMR
1983-1993: The Simtel shareware archive was hosted at WSMR on ARPANET
1985 October 3: White Sands V-2 Launching Site (Launch Complex 33) designated a National Historic Landmark.[10][11]
2004: The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics named the WSPG an Historic Aerospace Site.[12]
2004 May: Refurbished Mittelwerk V-2 rocket #FZ04/20919 returned to the WSMR Museum after being taken to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in September 2002 for restoration.
2007 November 14: NASA and a handful of community representatives broke ground at the Launch Complex-32 site for the Orion Abort Flight Test Launch Complex.[13]

1982 Space Shuttle Columbia landing at Northrup Strip

Nearby Facilities
Holloman Air Force Base (25 mi)[1]
Spaceport America
Fort Bliss (60 mi)[2]
White Sands National Monument

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:White Sands Missile Range.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Category:White Sands Missile Range Museum.

References and Notes

  1. ^ "Chapter Four: Global War at White Sands 1940-1945" (html). White Sands Administrative History. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-10-07. Executive Order No. 9029
  2. ^ a b "Development of the Corporal: the embryo of the army missile program, vol. 2" (PDF). Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
  3. ^ NOTE: The Center for Countermeasures (CCM), founded 1972, is a joint program of the OSD's Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), which is itself a component of the OSD (OSD). The CCM evaluates precision guided munitions and other devices in counter- and counter-countermeasures environments.
  4. ^ a b Rubenson, David (1998). McGregor Renewal and the Current Air Defense Mission (html). p. 77. ISBN 9780833026699. Retrieved 2008-09-15. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |otherauthors= ignored (help)
  5. ^ "Time Magazine, "Recovery at White Sands"".
  6. ^ a b Ordway, Frederick I, III (1979). The Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series 36. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. p. 290. ISBN 1894959000. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ a b c Ley, Willy (1951 - revised edition 1958). Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel. New York: The Viking Press. pp. 246, 253. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help); Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Bluth, John. "Von Karman, Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL". JPL.
  9. ^ "WSTF Community". NASA.
  10. ^ "White Sands V-2 Launching Site" (html). Retrieved 2008-10-07. {{cite web}}: Text "work: Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms" ignored (help)
  11. ^ Works by White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs Office at Project Gutenberg
  12. ^ "article". Aerospace America. October 2004. p. B6.
  13. ^ "NASA Building Test Pad at White Sands for New Spacecraft" (html). redOrbit. 3 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
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