White Sands Missile Range

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

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 Andres 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 Park), as well as USAF facilities.
	WSMR location
Coordinates	32°20′08″N 106°24′21″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 David C. Trybula (2019–present)[5]
Past; commanders	BG Gregory J. Brady (2018–2019); BG Eric L. Sanchez (2016–2018); BG Timothy R. Coffin (2014–2016); MG Gwen Bingham (2012–2014)[6]; BG John G. Ferrari (2011–2012); BG David L. Mann (2008–2009); BG Richard L. McCabe (2007–2008);

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a military testing area operated by the United States Army. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9 July 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.[7]
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 Northrup Strip at WSMR on 30 March 1982 as the conclusion to mission STS-3.[8] This was the only time that NASA used WSMR as a landing site for the space shuttle.

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

Incidents

Circa 30 May 1947, 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 Juarez, Mexico business district.[9]
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.[10]

Geography

The largest military installation in the United States, WSMR encompasses almost 3,200 sq mi (8,300 km²) that includes parts of five counties in southern New Mexico:

Nearby military bases

WSMR borders the 600,000-acre (2,400 km²) McGregor Range Complex at Fort Bliss to the south (southeast Tularosa Basin and on Otero Mesa[11]) making them contiguous areas for military testing.[12]
Holloman AFB borders WSMR to the east.

Nearby cities

Las Cruces, New Mexico to the west.
Alamogordo, New Mexico to the east.
Chaparral, New Mexico to the south.
El Paso, Texas to the south.

National park and wildlife refuge

The following federally-protected natural areas are contained within the borders of WSMR:

Transportation

Major highways

U.S. Highway 70 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.
NM 213 enters the range from the south from Chaparral, New Mexico and terminates at U.S. Highway 70.

Nearby airports

Las Cruces International Airport – No current regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights since 25 July 2005, when Westward Airways ceased operations. General aviation, New Mexico Army National Guard (4 UH-72 Lakota Helicopters), private charters and CAP use the airport, among others.
El Paso International Airport – Nearest airport with regularly scheduled commercial flights.

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[13] (National Historic Landmark district on 21 December 1965,[14][15] NRHP on 15 October 1966).[16]
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).[17][18]

Current operations

Ground-based electro-optical deep-space surveillance telescopes performing space surveillance mission.

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.[19] Other operations on WSMR land include:

The Launch Abort Flight Test Complex for the Pad Abort-1
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"[20] (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 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.[21]
- 1972 DoD Centers for Countermeasures (CCM), which evaluate precision guided munitions and other devices in electronic counter- and counter-countermeasures environments.[22]
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: US World War II preparations established[13] the Army Air Base, Alamogordo:[23] 1942 Biggs Army Airfield construction began near El Paso (1947 Biggs AFB, 1973 Biggs AAF)--the region's nearby Deming AAF, Ft Sumner AAF, and South Aux Fid #1 transferred to "Army Div Engrs" in 1946.[24]
1940s: When the range was formed, ranchers' land was leased and, in the 1970s, taken permanently to expand the area available for testing.[25]

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.[26]
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.[27]^:246[26]
1945-04-01: The first Private F launch[28] was at WSPG. (Not Fort Bliss's Antiaircraft and Guided Missile Center, which was established 6 July 1946.)[29]
1945-06-25: WSPG construction began with drilling of water wells.[13]
1945-07: First of 300 railroad cars of German V-2 components began to arrive at Las Cruces, New Mexico.[27]^:246
1945-09: The blockhouse at Army Launch Area 1 (later Launch Complex 33) was completed.[13]
1945-09-16: First WAC Corporal test firing.[27]^: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.[30]
1946-05-26: The 4th U.S. V-2 launch was tracked by "two AN/MPQ-2 stations".[31]
1946 summer: New WSPG quarters were completed and the Medical Detachment and 3 batteries moved from Ft Bliss.[32]
1946-09: First static firing of a Nike missile was at WSPG.[33]

New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range

1947 (late):[34] A merging of military areas (e.g., former USAAF bombing range and the smaller WSPG) established the "New Mexico Joint Guided Missile Test Range".[35]
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).[36]
1948–05 to 1949-4: 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)[37]
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."[13]
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).[24]
1951-07: The AGMTB became a sub-base of Florida's Air Force Missile Test Center until 31 August 1952.[38]
1951-08-22: Broomstick Scientists in a unit of the 9393 Technical Service Unit conducted their first launch: the "TF-1" V-2 rocket.[39][40] (Broomstick Sweepings publication ended after a 22 January 1952 general order transferred "1st Ord. GMS Bn." soldiers to Detachment No. 1, Station Complement.)[41]
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".[42]
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.)[24]
1952-11: The range's Red Butte Instrumentation Annex was assigned to Holloman AFB (disposed on 22 November 1963).[24]
1953-06: USS Desert Ship (LLS-1) (Launch Complex 35) was built to test the Navy RIM-8 Talos missile.[13]
1957-02: The 9393rd Technical Unit, Ordnance, became the U.S. Army Garrison.[43]
1957-03-13: Nike Hercules satisfactory launch from LC37.[44]