White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range (1960)[1] New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range (1947) White Sands Proving Ground (1945) Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range (1941)[2]
Part of United States Army Test and Evaluation Command
Located in the San Andreas Mountains, the Oscura Mountains, the San Augustin Mountains, the Tularosa Basin, and the Chupadera Mesa in New Mexico
Most of the northern Tularosa basin (blue) is used for the WSMR (area within dashed perimeter), which encloses numerous areas that are not military land (e.g., the NPS's White Sands National Monument), as well as USAF facilities.
WSMR location
Coordinates	32°20′08″N 106°24′21″W / 32.33556°N 106.40583°W[3] (Condron Army AirfieldCoordinates: 32°20′08″N 106°24′21″W / 32.33556°N 106.40583°W[3] (Condron Army Airfield near the southernmost WSMR point)
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army
Website	www.wsmr.army.mil
Site history
Built	1948-07-09 cantonment completed[4] 1957-02: Launch Complex 37 completed
Built by	Ordnance Corps[4]
Garrison information
Current commander	BG Timothy Coffin (2014–)[5]
Past commanders	BG John G. Ferrari (2011–12) BG David L. Mann (2008–09) BG Richard L. McCabe (2007–08)[6] MG Gwen Bingham (2012–)[7]

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army rocket range of almost 3,200 sq mi (8,300 km²) in parts of five counties in southern New Mexico. The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR and the 600,000-acre (2,400 km²) McGregor Range Complex at Fort Bliss to the south (southeast Tularosa Basin and on Otero Mesa^[8]) are contiguous areas for military testing.^[9] It includes the site used for the first atomic bomb test, codenamed Trinity.

The site of the 1945 Trinity explosion became part of WSMR.

National Historic Landmarks

Designated historic sites on WSMR land include:

• Trinity Site: Selected in November 1944 for the Trinity nuclear test conducted on 16 July 1945^[10] (National Historic Landmark district on 21 December 1965,^[11][12] NRHP on 15 October 1966).^[13]
• White Sands V-2 Launching Site: A V-2 static test firing was 15 March 1946, and the first US V-2 launch was 16 April 1946 (landmark designation 3 October 1985).^[14][15]

Current operations

The White Sands Test Center headquartered at the WSMR "Post Area" has branches for Manned Tactical Systems & Electromagnetic Radiation and conducts missile testing and range recovery operations.^[16] Other operations on WSMR land include:

• The Launch Abort Flight Test Complex for the Orion Project
• White Sands Launch Complex 37, built for Nike Hercules tests
• White Sands Launch Complex 38, built for Nike Zeus tests with Launch Control Building now used for Patriot missile firings
• "WSMR Main Post", which includes several smaller areas such as the housing area, golf course, "Navy Area", and "Technical Area"^[17] (a recreational shooting range just inside the "El Paso gate" on the south is outside of the Post Area.)
  • WSMR Museum tours and exhibits, which include V-2 rocket #FZ04/20919 returned in May 2004 after restoration.
  • White Sands Hall of Fame, which inducts members such as the first range commander (1945 - 1947), Col. Harold Turner, in 1980.^[18]
  • 1972 DoD Centers for Countermeasures (CCM), which evaluate precision guided munitions and other devices in electronic counter- and counter-countermeasures environments.^[19]
• 1963 NASA White Sands Test Facility's ground station for Tracking and Data Relay Satellites and the SDO ground station with 2 18 m (59 ft) antennas.
• The North Oscura Peak facility of the AFRL Directed Energy Directorate

Chronology

• 1930: Robert Goddard began rocket testing in New Mexico.
• 1941-04-13: The US' WWII preparations established^[10] the Army Air Base, Alamogordo:^[20] 1942 Biggs Army Airfield construction began near El Paso (1947 Biggs AFB, 1973 Biggs AAF)--the region's nearby Deming AAFld (14 Dec 1946), Ft Sumner AAFld (6 Mar), and South Aux Fid #1 (4 Apr) transferred to "Army Div Engrs" in 1946.^[21]
• 1940s: When the range was formed, ranchers' land was leased and, in the 1970s, taken permanently to expand the area available for testing.^[22]

USAAF ranges

• 1941-12: Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range established near the "West Texas Bombardier Triangle".
• 1941-12: Executive Order No. 9029^[2] 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.^[23]
• 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.^[24]:246[23]
• 1945-04-01: The first Private F launch^[25] was at WSPG. (Not Fort Bliss's Antiaircraft and Guided Missile Center, which was established 6 July 1946.)^[26]
• 1945-06-25: WSPG construction began with drilling of water wells.^[10]
• 1945-07: First of 300 railroad cars of German V-2 components began to arrive at Las Cruces, New Mexico.^[24]:246
• 1945-09: The blockhouse at Army Launch Area 1 (later Launch Complex 33) was completed.^[10]
• 1945-09-16: First WAC Corporal test firing.^[24]:253
• 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.^[27]
• 1946-05-26: The 4th U.S. V-2 launch was tracked by "two AN/MPQ-2 stations".^[28]
• 1946 summer: New WSPG quarters were completed and the Medical Detachment and 3 batteries moved from Ft Bliss.^[29]
• 1946-09: First static firing of a Nike missile was at WSPG.^[30]

New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range

• 1947 (late):^[31] A merging of military areas (e.g., former USAAF bombing range and the smaller WSPG) established the "New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range".^[32]
• 1947-11-14: The USAF's Alamogordo Guided Missile Test Base (AGMTB) on the range had its first GAPA missile launch (39th for GAPA and first with a ramjet).^[33]
• 1948-07: USAF Project MX–774 commenced with the first RTV-A-2 Hiroc launch (from Launch Complex 33)^[34]
• 1949-03: Holloman's 2754th Air Force Base unit gained "control of [the WSPG] support airfield, Condron Field…from Biggs Army Air Field at Fort Bliss."^[10]
• 1949: German scientists transferred from New Mexico to Alabama (Dr. Ernst Steinhoff transferred from WSPG to Holloman's Air Development Center.)
• 1949-07: The range's Four Bits Peak Instrumentation Annex was assigned to the AFB (disposed on 30 September 1960).^[21]
• 1951-07: The AGMTB became a sub-base of Florida's Air Force Missile Test Center until 31 August 1952.^[35]
• 1951-08-22: Broomstick Scientists in a unit of the 9393 Technical Service Unit conducted their first launch: the "TF-1" V-2 rocket.^[36][37] (Broomstick Sweepings publication ended after a 22 January 1952 general order transferred "1st Ord. GMS Bn." soldiers to Detachment No. 1, Station Complement.)^[38]
• 1952-05: An additional 40 mi × 117 mi (64 km × 188 km) was set aside for the "Alamogordo bombing range, White Sands proving ground, and the Fort Bliss antiaircraft range".^[39]
• 1952 (mid): The joint range of more than 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) was 2nd in area to the Eglin AFB range (the Edwards AFB range was 3rd.)^[21]
• 1952-11: The range's Red Butte Instrumentation Annex was assigned to Holloman AFB (disposed on 22 November 1963).^[21]
• 1953-06: USS Desert Ship (LLS-1) (Launch Complex 35) was built to test the Navy RIM-8 Talos missile.^[10]
• 1957-02: The 9393rd Technical Unit, Ordnance, became the U.S. Army Garrison.^[40]
• 1957-03-13: Nike Hercules satisfactory launch from LC37.^[41]

White Sands Missile Range

• 1958-05-01: The test range was designated "White Sands Missile Range".^[10]
• 1958-09-02: The Gold Hill Instrumentation Annex was assigned to Holloman AFB (disposed on 30 September 1960).^[21]
• 1958-10: Zeus Acquisition Radar site construction at the planned Launch Complex 38 began^[42] near an airstrip.^[43]
• c. 1959: 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.^[44]
• 1963: President John F. Kennedy visited for the MEWS (Missile Exercise White Sands).^[45]
• 1962-03: Annual Service Practice was being conducted for Redstone missile crews.^[46]
• 1963-03: Site preparation began for the Multi-function Array Radar.^[47]
• 1963: Apollo launch escape system tests with the Little Joe II began at White Sands Launch Complex 36 (ended 1966).^[48]
• 1963-11: The Loma (assigned December 1952), Rose Park (5 February 1950), & Twin Buttes (December 1949) instrumentation annexes transferred from Holloman AFB to the Army.^[21]
• 1964-07-08: The first "successful Athena/ABRES test missile [was] fired from Utah into WSMR".^[49]
• 1965-11: first Sprint missile launch
• 1967: Operation Understanding civic leaders observed their local Nike crews perform Short Notice Annual Practice launches.^[50]
• 1967-10-21: Public Law 90-110 authorized $4,781,000 for WSMR construction.^[51]
• 1972: WSMR had 3 RCA AN/FPS-16 Instrumentation Radars^[52]

1982 Space Shuttle Columbia landing at Northrop Strip

• 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.^[53][54]
• 1991 (late): Convair QF-106 Delta Dart drones based at Holloman AFB 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
• 2004: AIAA named the WSPG a Historic Aerospace Site.^[55]
• 2007-11-14: Launch Complex 32 groundbreaking for the Orion Abort Test Booster.^[56][57]
• 2011: A point in the Post Area was designated "White Sands Missile Range" in the USGS's Geographic Names Information System.^[3]

External media

Images
1945 WSPG
Video
196x Big Picture: Tularosa Frontier
Short Notice Annual Practice (minute 16:50)
Countdown at White Sands

See also

• McDonald Ranch House, location of the final assembly of the first tested nuclear weapon in the world

References

1. http://www.nps.gov/archive/whsa/adhi/adhi5d.htm
2. "Chapter Four: Global War at White Sands 1940–1945". White Sands Administrative History. National Park Service. Retrieved 7 October 2008. Executive Order No. 9029
3. "Condron Army Airfield (2444053)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2014-05-28. (Doña Ana county--entered in the GNIS on 20 Mar 2011)
4. "Development of the Corporal: the embryo of the army missile program" (PDF). Army Ballistic Missile Agency. April 1961. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2009.
5. "WSMR Official Website: Commanding General White Sands Missile Range". U.S. Army, WSMR Operator. January 14, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
6. "WSMR Official Website, Leadership Page".
7. "White Sands Commander Gwen Bingham promoted to major general", Steve Ramirez, lcsun-news.com, 20 March 2013
8. http://fronteralandalliance.org/castner/media/ICRMP.pdf "This report inventoried and evaluated 150 Cold War era properties constructed between 1956 and 1961 at Orogrande Range Doña Ana Range, McGregor Range, North McGregor Range, and Meyer Target Range in New Mexico."
9. Rubenson, David; Robert Everson, Jorge Munoz (Arroyo Center); Robert Weissler (RAND Corporation) (1998). McGregor Renewal and the Current Air Defense Mission. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-8330-2669-9. Retrieved 15 September 2008. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
10. "A Brief History of White Sands Proving Ground 1941–1965" (PDF). New Mexico State University. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
11. Greenwood, Richard (14 January 1975). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Trinity Site" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-06-21. and Accompanying 10 photos, from 1974. PDF (3.37 MB)
12. "Trinity Site". National Historic Landmarks. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
13. Staff (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
14. "White Sands V-2 Launching Site". Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
15. Works by White Sands Missile Range Public Affairs Office at Project Gutenberg
16. "Time Magazine, "Recovery at White Sands"". 29 June 1962.
17. http://www.arl.army.mil/www/pages/45/VG_WSMR.PDF
18. http://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/FactSheets/hfame.htm
19. http://www.ccm.osd.mil
20. http://www.450thbg.com/real/history/june43.shtml
21. Mueller (1982). "Holloman Air Force Base". Air Force Bases as of 1982 (Report).
22. Gibbs, Jason (19 July 2014). "WSMR, DOD may take control of range's Northern Extension Area". Las Cruces Sun-News (The Las Cruces Sun-News). Retrieved 30 July 2014.
23. Ordway, Frederick I, III; Sharpe, Mitchell R (1979). The Rocket Team. Apogee Books Space Series. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell. pp. 290, 389. ISBN 1-894959-00-0.
24. Ley, Willy (1958) [1944]. Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel (revised ed.). New York: The Viking Press. pp. 246, 253.
25. Bluth, John. "Von Karman, Malina laid the groundwork for the future JPL". JPL.
26. Hamilton, John A. Blazing skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, 1940-2009 ("Google eBook" of Government Printing Office document). Retrieved 2014-05-29. Special Orders No. 143, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, dated July 6, 1946, [established] the Antiaircraft and Guided Missile Center [from] the remnants of the Antiaircraft Artillery School, the Antiaircraft Replacement Training Center, Army Ground Forces Board No. 4,¹³ 1st AAA Guided Missile Battalion, the 1852nd Area Service Unit, and remaining antiaircraft units, including three automatic weapons battalions and one gun battalion placed in the Army General Reserve.
27. McCleskey, C.; D. Christensen. "Dr. Kurt H. Debus: Launching a Vision" (pdf). p. 35. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
28. Upper Air Rocket Summary: V-2 No. 4 (PDF) (Report). 29 May 1946. Retrieved 2014-05-23. General Electric Company provided gyros, mixer-computers, wiring, servo motors, and propellant piping to replace those German parts that had deteriorated with age. line feed character in |quote= at position 25 (help) (also available at PostWarV2.com)
29. Hamilton, John A. Blazing skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, 1940-2009. Government Printing Office. three officers and fifty-five enlisted men...worked closely with the German rocket scientists who were located in a six-acre ordnance area on the north side of the Fort Bliss cantonment. [The military unit went to WSPG] to provide the manpower to build the [V-2] missiles and erect them on test stands.
30. http://www.cecer.army.mil/techreports/ERDC-CERL_SR-06-53/ERDC-CERL_SR-06-53.pdf
31. Integration of the Holloman-White Sands Ranges, 1947-1952 (2nd Edition, 1957)
32. Mueller (1982). "Holloman Air Force Base". Air Force Bases as of 1982 (Report). p. 248.
33. Bushnell, David (released 08-25-1986). GAPA: Holloman's First Missile Program (Scribd.com image) (Report). Air Force Missile Development Center: Historical Branch. IRIS 00169113. Retrieved 2013-08-11. [1st ramjet GAPA] "was launched 14 November 1947 and the initial liquid-fuel variety 12 March 1948.⁸... The last of the GAPAs, number 114, was launched 15 August 1950, and the project officially terminated at Holloman the following month.¹¹ Check date values in: |date= (help) (date identified at http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/169/113.xml)]
34. http://nmsua.edu/tiopete/files/2008/12/wspgcoldbook.pdf
35. http://spacemedicineassociation.org/timeline/1941-1948/History%20of%20Holloman%20AFB%20Space%20Biology%20.pdf test installation
36. Kennedy, Gregory P. (1983). Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Guided Missile. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 62.
37. Egermeier, Robert P. (September 2001). "Former "Broomstick Scientist"". Aerospace America: 7.
38. Koppenshaver, James T. (30 January 1951). "Broomstick Sweepings" (PDF). Wind and Sand. pp. 1, 6. Retrieved 2014-05-27. late 1950…Fort White Sands…early in 1951
39. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19520528&id=dfspAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zSMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3113,6435119
40. http://www.wsmrhistoric.com/files/1957%20Wind%20and%20Sand%20V7%20Issue%2044.pdf
41. Leonard, Barry (c. 1986). History of Strategic and Ballistic Missile Defense: Volume II: 1956-1972 (Army.mil PDF -- also available at Google Books). Retrieved 2012-09-01.
42. Piland, Doyle. "Way Back When....." (PDF). WSMR newsletter. Retrieved 2014-04-11. Launch Complex 38...Site preparation for the TTR [Target Tracking Radar] began in July 1959.... Site preparation for the Discrimination Radar was started in January 1961.
43. Site Plan: Nike Zeus Facilities ALA 5 (Map). reproduced in WSMR newsletter: Federal Government of the United States.
44. "New Device Will Plot All Planes". Alton Evening Telegraph. 20 August 1959. p. 29. Iconorama shows almost instantly the positions of aircraft thousands of miles away… Traces made by the planes being tracked are scribed on a coated slide by a moving stylus. … The slide plot measures only one inch square, yet overall error of the projected display is said to be about one part in 1,000. … Iconorama units already have been installed and operated at the Pacific Missile Range, Point Mugu Calif.; the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and the Naval Research Laboratory
45. (5 June 1963) Kennedy visit leaves lasting impression at WSMR
    • http://www.wsmr-history.org/handsacrosshistory-02-09.pdf
46. Conduct Of Redstone Annual Service Practice At White Sands Missile Range New Mexico (Standing Operating Procedure), Fort Sill: Headquarters, United States Army Artillery And Missile Center (the Artillery and Missile Center at Ft Sill was redesignated the Field Artillery Center in 1969.)
47. http://nikemissile.org/ResearchAndDevelopment/pg16.shtml
48. "WSTF Community". NASA.
49. "Part I. History of ABM Development" (transcript at AlternateWars.com). Retrieved 2014-04-11.
50. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1893&dat=19670602
51. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-81/pdf/STATUTE-81-Pg279.pdf "Two Rock Ranch Station, California: Supply facilities, $174,000."
52. Hoihjelle, Donald L. (February 1972). AN/FPS-16(AX) Radar Modeling and Computer Simulation (Report). WSMR Instrumentation Directorate.
53. "The Story of SIMTEL20". Archived from the original on 11 January 2011. Retrieved 2014-10-29.
54. "SAVE SIMTEL20!". Retrieved 2014-10-29.
55. "article". Aerospace America: B6. October 2004.
56. "NASA Building Test Pad at White Sands for New Spacecraft". redOrbit. 3 February 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
57. NASA: Constellation Mission Project, Research, and Test Sites Overview