White Sands Credit - © Mark Wade

White Sands Missile Range occupies an area 160 x 65 km in the Tularosa Basin of southern New Mexico, across the Sacramento Mountain range from Roswell. In the 1930's, Robert Goddard, after surveying weather conditions and population densities, had selected Roswell for his pioneering rocket tests. White Sands, a true desert area, was even more unpopulated than Roswell. German advances in rocketry during World War II impelled the US Army to begin programs to exploit this technology. The White Sands Proving Ground was established for testing German and American long-range rockets on 9 July 1945. Seven days later the first atomic bomb was exploded at Trinity Site, near the north boundary of the range. The first launch of a Tiny Tim rocket was on 26 September 1945. On 11 October a Tiny Tim boosted a WAC Corporal rocket from the tower. This was the first use of Launch Complex 33, later to be used for V-2, Nike, Viking, Corporal, Lance and Multiple Launch Rocket System testing.

The technology developed so quickly that within ten years test of longer-range rockets was moved to coastal sites at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg. However the substantial infrastructure developed at White Sands continued in use for test of shorter range missiles and sounding rockets. In 1960 White Sands began use of 'call up' areas on the north and west boundaries. Seeral times a year ranchers in these areas would be notified to evacuate them during longer-range tests.

Administratively the range also operated other missile launch sites in New Mexico, Utah and Idaho. Longer-range rockets were fired from these sites with intercept or impact points at White Sands.

White Sands was considered as a shuttle launch site in the early 1970's (altitude would have provided payload advantage). This did not come to pass, but Northrup Strip at White Sands was selected as a shuttle alternate landing site. The orbiter Columbia landed there on 30 March, 1982. The experience showed that White Sands' fine silicate dust posed a problem for shuttle operations. The strip was also used as the primary training site for shuttle pilots to practice approaches and mock landings in the shuttle trainer aircraft.

By the 1990's White Sands had more than 1,500 precisely surveyed instrumentation sites using 1,000 optical and electronic tracking and telemetry systems. A site-wide timing system synchronized these instruments. Other range services included calibration, communication, meteorological, photographic, television, aerial target support, and laboratory testing facilities (covering nuclear environments, weapon systems simulation, guidance and control, propulsion, climatic, microbiological, metallurgic).

Major range users included:

• US Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC), established in 1946. The LLS-1 USS Desert Ship is used to test naval surface weapon systems. The NAWC also provides sounding rocket support services for NASA, the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and commercial customers. Their High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility also test naval high energy lasers such as MIRACL (Mid Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser) and the SEALITE Beam Director.

• The Air Force conducts missile research and development program testing at White Sands. They also use the range for tactical flight training and exercises. The USAF also controls the range's restricted airspace.

• The US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) originally provided radar support to the Signal Corps for V-2 tests in 1946. Since 1952 it also studies electronic countermeasures vulnerability of Army missiles and tests foreign missile systems at the site.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses White Sands for many test activities. During the Apollo program launch escape systems and the Apollo spacecraft's engines were tested there. Many shuttle components were tested as well.

• Name: Launch Complex 32. White Sands LC32. Latitude: 32.4066 N. Longitude: 106.4067 W. Launch Pads: 1. Hera, Storm-2.

• Name: Launch Complex 33. White Sands LC33. Latitude: 32.4017 N. Longitude: 106.3781 W. Launch Pads: 1. Corporal, Hermes A-1, Hermes A-3, Hermes B-1, MX-774, Nike, Nike Ajax, V-2, V-2, Hermes B-1, Viking, Wac. In October 1985 the National Park Service notified the Department of the Army that Launch Complex 33 (LC-33), located 6 1/2 miles east of post headquarters, at White Sands Missile Range was now a National Historical Land mark. Two years earlier on Feb. 16, 1983 the complex was named a State of New Mexico historical monument.

  The designation was based on the fact the launch complex was this country's first major rocket launch facility. Work conducted at LC-33 started a chain of events in the United States that led to orbiting satellites, manned space flight, trips to the moon and the space shuttle. The complex consisted of a blockhouse, several concrete launching pads, a 100-foot tall launching tower for small rockets, gantry and blast pit.

  The blockhouse was designed by Dr. Del Sasso, a group of CAL Tech engineers and White Sands Proving Ground's first commander, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Turner.

  Construction of the Army blockhouse began on July 10, 1945 and was completed in September at a cost of $36,000.

  It was built of reinforced concrete, its firing control room had walls 10 feet thick, and a roof 27 feet thick at its apex capable of withstanding the impact of a large rocket, such as a V-2, falling from an altitude of 100 miles at a speed of 2,000 miles per hour.

  The blockhouse consisted of a 937-square foot firing control room housing firing controls, monitoring and communications equipment, and test personnel. It had three viewing ports made of blast proof safety glass, a blast proof door, and a roof wash-down system designed to decontaminate the building in the event of a rocket explosion. The room was mechanically air conditioned and electrically heated. A multiplicity of three-inch diameter conduits provided wiring access to the north and east launch pads.

  A 1158-square foot communications room was added on in 1947 and stood to the rear of the firing control room, with two-foot thick walls and a three-foot thick ceiling, which served as the focus of all range communications and data transmission facilities.

  Another addition to the blockhouse in 1947 was a small room attached to the west wall of the firing control room. This room housed a four-stage, 3,000 P.S.I. air compressor and six storage tanks for supplying compressed air to the launch pads. From the pads the compressed air was piped directly into waiting rockets during the prelaunch fueling process.

  While the blockhouse was being built, a 100-foot tall launch tower for the WAC Corporal rocket was erected north of the blockhouse and directly east of what was to be the first launch pad for the V-2 in 1946. A Tiny Tim booster developed for the WAC Corporal was the first rocket to be fired out of the completed tower in addition to being the first rocket fired from the launch complex on Sept. 26, 1945 at 10 a.m. After completion of the WAC Corporal program the tower was dismantled leaving only three foot pads where it once stood.

  In December 1945 the Army completed plans for a test facility and a gantry crane that could be used to directly service rockets up to 54 feet high. Actual construction of the gantry began in August 1946 and was completed in November at a cost of $38,000.

  The gantry crane consisted of two open steel towers, each 60 feet tall and tied together at the top by an open steel truss. The dimensions of the gantry are 63 feet tall and 28 feet wide. Three pairs of adjustable work platforms between the towers could be swung down to encircle a rocket, and, for rockets higher than 54 feet, two outrigger platforms could provide access to one of the rocket's sides. The platforms were reached by stairs and ladders, and the top truss had a 15-ton chain hoist for servicing the work platforms. Two one-ton outboard service hoists provided additional lifting capability.

  The gantry crane was equipped with fire fighting, communications, low pressure air, electrical service, and propellant handling equipment. It rested on four pairs of 400-pound rail wheels, each connected to electric drive motors that moved the structure at slow pace up and down the crane's 500- foot track.

  During the preparation of a Corporal missile launch, a wheel broke in half when the gantry was being moved down the track. It took all night and two 15-ton jacks to lift one corner to replace the broken wheel.

  Construction of the blast pit, formally called the 20,000-pound motor test and launch facility, began early in 1946 with the excavation of a 35-foot deep pit. The pit's walls were lined with reinforced concrete two feet thick, and its rear wall covered by two foot wide overlapping steel plates. The platform over the pit, from which rockets were tested or launched, had an opening 7 feet square. Exhaust gases passed into the pit and were there redirected up and out across the desert. A sprinkler helped quench the rocket blast by spraying water into the pit. There is no record of the facility being used to test or launch a V-2, but it was used for other rocket programs of that period.

  Other facilities at the launch complex included two sets of gantry crane tracks - one north of the blockhouse which began just east of the 1946 V-2 launch platform going northeast into the desert. The second set joined the first and then went due south ending at the blast pit. In 1947 the first set of tracks located adjacent to the 1946 V-2 platform was moved and attached to the set of tracks at the blast pit continuing to go south ending east of the blockhouse at the 1947 V-2 platform.

  An observation tower was built south of the blockhouse in 1945 but was removed in 1947. Foundations for a second tower were put in place west of the first V-2 platform. However, the tower was never built. A short stretch of railroad track running parallel of the blockhouse going north was installed in 1945 but removed in 1947. A launch site for the Hermes missile program was located directly east of the second V-2 platform.

  The first test flight of a V-2 from LC-33 took place on April 16, 1946 at the first V-2 platform. Other rockets and missiles which have used the complex as a launching point have been the Corporal E, Corporal, Nike Ajax, Hermes, Lance, Honest John, Multiple Launch Rocket System and the Army Tactical Missile System. Viking rockets were launched from a position designated ALA1 at the same site.

  The site is still used by the range's Materiel Test Directorate in support of weapons testing. Currently both the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and the Army Tactical Missile System (Army TACMS) use the launch complex. In addition the Dynamics Laboratory has shaker tables located on the west side of the complex.

• Name: Launch Complex 35. White Sands LC35. Latitude: 32.4040 N. Longitude: 106.3400 W. Launch Pads: 1. Aerobee, Aerobee 150, Aerobee 170, Standard SM-2ER Block IV.

• Name: Launch Complex 36. White Sands LC36. Latitude: 32.4170 N. Longitude: 106.3220 W. Launch Pads: 1. Apollo LES, Aries, Black Brant, Little Joe II, Storm, Taurus Orion, Terrier Orion.

• Name: Launch Complex 37. White Sands LC37. Latitude: 32.4162 N. Longitude: 106.2911 W. Launch Pads: 1. Redstone, Sprint, Nike Ajax, Nike Hercules, HEDI. The site was earlier known as ALA3. LC-37 was a much larger complex than was LC-33. It extends from the HIBEX launch facility located at 32.41594 N 106.31448 W to 32.41618 N 106.29109 W om tje east. Much of LC-37 was originally the system test area for Nike Ajax and Nike Hercules. Thousands of these missiles were launched from the complex over the years, ending around 1967. There were six launch sections with the one on the east being Alpha (A) section. Alpha section was the location of the launcher used for the five Squirts, launched in 1964 and 1965, and Sprint PTV launches in November/December 1965. This was also the launcher used for the HEDI KITE launches.

• Name: Launch Complex 38. White Sands LC38. Latitude: 32.4163 N. Longitude: 106.2783 W. Launch Pads: 1. Nike Zeus. Nike Zeus missiles were launched from Army Launch Area 5/Launch Complex 38 (LC-38). There were two "R&D" Launch Cells at LC-38 and one "Tactical" Launch Cell. The Tactical cell was built somewhat later than the R&D cells. The launch location is at the western edge of LC-38. The two R&D cells were located approximately where the present large building and parking lot to the east is located. The smaller building east of the large building was the Launch Control Building (under ground control room). The Tactical cell was located to the far right of the complex east of the control building.

• Name: Launch Complex 50. White Sands LC50. Latitude: 32.4718 N. Longitude: 106.3238 W. Launch Pads: 1. Sprint. The only missiles (with the possible exception of a HIBEX) that were ever launched from LC50 were Sprints (except for other small missile launched from there in recent years). LC-50 was a mound built up in the desert with a ramp up to it coming from the south-southwest. The mound originally had three launch cells. One was destroyed by an explosion of FLA-3 in the cell. It was fenced and locked.

• Name: Launch Complex 94. White Sands LC94. Latitude: 34.2049 N. Longitude: 106.4589 W. Launch Pads: 1. Hera, Nike Zeus.

• Name: Navy Launch Area. White Sands NLA. Latitude: 32.3900 N. Longitude: 106.3500 W. Launch Pads: 1. Viking.

• Name: SULF Launch Complex. White Sands SULF. Latitude: 33.7211 N. Longitude: 106.7364 W. Launch Pads: 1. Storm.

White Sands Credit - © Mark Wade

• 1946 January 16 - V-2 flight tests in US initiated. Launch Vehicle: V-2. U.S. upper atmosphere research program initiated with captured German V-2 rockets. A V-2 panel of representatives of various interested agencies was created, and a total of more than 60 V-2's were fired before the supply ran out. The Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University then undertook to develop a medium-altitude rocket, the Aerobee, while the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) directed its efforts to the development of a large high-altitude rocket, first called the Neptune, later the Viking.

• 1946 February 21 - Peenenmuende team arrives in White Sands Launch Vehicle: V-2.

• 1946 October 1 - Project Bumper initiated. Launch Vehicle: V-2. Army Ordnance initiated Bumper Project for development leading to a two-stage rocket test vehicle, which resulted in use of JPL WAC Corporal as second stage of a V-2.

• 1947 January 23 - Hermes telemetry system test. Launch Vehicle: Redstone. Telemetry operated successfully in a V-2 firing at WSPG, Army Ordnance's Hermes telemetry system.

• 1996 March 15 - DC-XA Rollout Launch Vehicle: DC-X. DC-XA

• 1996 March 22 - DC-XA arrives at White Sands Launch Vehicle: DC-X. DC-XA

• 1996 May 4 - DC-XA Engine Test 1 Launch Vehicle: DC-X. DC-XA

• 1996 May 7 - DC-XA Engine Test 2 Launch Vehicle: DC-X. DC-XA

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• Official Site of the Topic, Information obtained from the manufacturer or operator's official web site.