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— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

White Sands Missile Range

~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
6 sections
  • White Sands Missile Range sits in the New Mexico desert, holding a list of firsts that reads like a compressed history of American power. On the 16th of July 1945, the world's first atomic bomb was detonated here, at a site code-named Trinity, near the towns of Carrizozo and San Antonio. That single event was just seven days old when the ground beneath it was formally renamed White Sands Proving Ground. What had been an Army bombing and gunnery range since 1941 was becoming something far stranger and more consequential. Captured German rockets would arrive by the trainload. Astronauts would land here. Software libraries serving the early internet would be housed here. How does a patch of southern New Mexico desert become the testing ground for nearly every era of American technological ambition? That is the story this documentary will trace.

  • The McDonald Ranch House, a modest structure inside what is now the range, served as the Manhattan Project's final assembly point for the prototype Fat Man plutonium bomb on the 13th of July 1945. Three days later, in the pre-dawn dark, the device was detonated at Trinity Site near the range's northern boundary. The site had been selected as early as November 1944, well before the bomb itself was ready. After the war, Trinity Site was designated a National Historic Landmark on the 21st of December 1965, then added to the National Register of Historic Places on the 15th of October 1966. Today it sits within a military installation that encompasses nearly 3,200 square miles across five New Mexico counties: Dona Ana, Otero, Socorro, Sierra, and Lincoln.

  • In the summer of 1945, the first of 300 railroad cars loaded with German V-2 components began arriving at Las Cruces, New Mexico. U.S. forces had captured 100 long-range V-2 rockets at the end of World War II, and 35 Operation Paperclip scientists from Germany were working at the newly named White Sands Proving Ground by 1946. GE contractors sorted and reassembled V-2 parts in Building 1538, known as Assembly Building 1. Between 1946 and 1951-67 of those rockets were test-fired from what became known as the White Sands V-2 Launching Site. That site recorded its first static firing on the 15th of March 1946 and its first actual U.S. V-2 launch on the 16th of April 1946. The site received its own National Historic Landmark designation on the 3rd of October 1985.

  • On the 15th of May 1947, a V-2 rocket fired from the range veered off course and landed 4 miles northeast of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Exactly two weeks later, on the 29th of May 1947, a modified V-2 sounding rocket went off course again and crashed onto a rocky knoll about 3.5 miles south of the Juarez business district in Mexico, carving a crater 24 feet deep and 50 feet wide. A third incident unfolded on the 11th of July 1970, when the U.S. Air Force launched an Athena sounding rocket from the Green River Launch Complex in Utah, aimed at a target inside the range. The rocket flew south and struck the Mapimi Desert in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Durango, landing 180-200 miles south of the Mexican border. The range's enormous footprint made it a natural target destination, but that same geography could not always contain the machines it was designed to test.

  • From 1983 through the 30th of September 1993, White Sands hosted the Simtel collection, described as the largest collection of free software and freeware available to the public on the ARPANET and Internet. It had begun as a copy of an MIT collection of CP/M software and grew to include free software for multiple operating systems. The range also served as a landing strip for NASA. On the 30th of March 1982, Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the Northrop Strip at White Sands as the conclusion of mission STS-3. It remains the only time NASA used the site as a shuttle landing location. Much later, on the 25th of May 2022, the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft returning from the International Space Station landed successfully at White Sands Space Harbor. White Sands National Park, founded in the 1930s, also lies within the range's borders, as does the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge.

  • President John F. Kennedy visited White Sands on the 5th of June 1963 for the Missile Exercise White Sands, known as MEWS. That same year, Apollo program Launch Escape System tests using the Little Joe II rocket began at White Sands Launch Complex 36; the tests ran until 1966. The range's first McDonnell Douglas DC-X flight lifted off from White Sands Space Harbor on the 18th of August 1993. The White Sands Test Center, headquartered at the main post, operates branches handling tactical systems and electromagnetic radiation. Among its current installations is a NASA ground station for Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, originally established in 1963, alongside the SDO ground station equipped with two 18-meter antennas. The WSMR Museum houses a restored V-2 rocket, returned in May 2004, and the White Sands Missile Range Hall of Fame has inducted members since at least 1980, when it enshrined the range's first commander, Colonel Harold Turner, who served from 1945 to 1947.

Common questions

When was White Sands Missile Range established?

White Sands Missile Range was originally established in December 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range. It was formally renamed White Sands Proving Ground on the 9th of July 1945, and received its current name, White Sands Missile Range, on the 1st of May 1958.

What happened at the Trinity test site at White Sands?

On the 16th of July 1945, the world's first atomic bomb, code-named Trinity, was test detonated at Trinity Site near the northern boundary of White Sands. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on the 21st of December 1965 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on the 15th of October 1966.

How many German V-2 rockets were test-fired at White Sands?

Of the 100 German V-2 rockets captured by U.S. forces after World War II, 67 were test-fired at White Sands between 1946 and 1951. The first U.S. V-2 launch from the site occurred on the 16th of April 1946.

Did the Space Shuttle ever land at White Sands Missile Range?

Yes. On the 30th of March 1982, NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the Northrop Strip at White Sands as the conclusion of mission STS-3. It remains the only time NASA used White Sands as a shuttle landing site.

How large is White Sands Missile Range?

White Sands Missile Range is the largest military installation in the United States, encompassing almost 3,200 square miles. It spans parts of Dona Ana, Otero, Socorro, Sierra, and Lincoln counties in southern New Mexico.

What national park is located inside White Sands Missile Range?

White Sands National Park, founded in the 1930s, is located within the borders of White Sands Missile Range. The San Andres National Wildlife Refuge is also contained within the range's boundaries.

All sources

75 references cited across the entry

  1. 1reportWhite Sands Administrative HistoryNational Park Service
  2. 3webLTG Gwen Bingham28 March 2017
  3. 4webWhite Sands Missile RangeAstronautix.com
  4. 5webTrinity SiteWhite Sands Missile Range
  5. 8newsUSAF Accidentally Launched Rocket into Mexico's Mapimi Desert 45 Years AgoMichael Barclay — Unredacted — July 13, 2015
  6. 10webU.S. Army Fort Bliss Training CenterWestern Regional Partnership — 2016
  7. 11webNational Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Trinity SiteRichard Greenwood — National Park Service — 14 January 1975
  8. 12webTrinity SiteNational Park Service
  9. 16webWhite Sands Missile Range Hall of FameWhite Sands Missile Range Museum — 28 January 2021
  10. 18webA Brief History of White Sands Proving Ground, 1941-1965WSMR Museum — September 21, 2020
  11. 19newsWSMR, DOD may take control of range's Northern Extension AreaJason Gibbs — The Las Cruces Sun-News — 19 July 2014
  12. 21bookThe Rocket TeamFrederick I III Ordway — Thomas Y. Crowell — 1979
  13. 22bookRockets, Missiles and Space TravelWilly Ley — The Viking Press — 1958
  14. 24bookBlazing skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, 1940-2009John A Hamilton — Government Printing Office
  15. 26reportUpper Air Rocket Summary: V-2 Number 4Defense Technical Information Center — 29 May 1946
  16. 27bookBlazing skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, 1940-2009John A. Hamilton — Government Printing Office
  17. 29reportAir Force Bases as of 1982Mueller — USAF Office of Air Force History — 1982
  18. 30reportGAPA: Holloman's First Missile ProgramDavid Bushnell — Air Force Missile Development Center: Historical Branch — 1986-08-25
  19. 31webBumper ProjectUS Army
  20. 33bookVengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Guided MissileGregory P. Kennedy — Smithsonian Institution Press — 1983
  21. 34journalFormer "Broomstick Scientist"Robert P. Egermeier — September 2001
  22. 35newsBroomstick SweepingsJames T. Koppenshaver — 30 January 1951
  23. 36reportFederal RegisterMay 27, 1952
  24. 38webNike HerculesAstronautix.com
  25. 40newsWay Back When.....Doyle Piland
  26. 41mapSite Plan: Nike Zeus Facilities ALA 5Federal Government of the United States
  27. 43citationConduct of Redstone Annual Service Practice at White Sands Missile Range New MexicoFort Sill: Headquarters, United States Army Artillery And Missile Center
  28. 45webRemarks Upon Arrival at the Missile Range, White Sands, New Mexico.The American Presidency Project — June 5, 1963
  29. 46reportApollo Experience Report - Launch Escape Propulsion SubsystemNeil A Townsend — NASA — March 1973
  30. 47reportAir Force Bases as of 1982Mueller — 1982
  31. 48newsLocal Men Visit Zeus at White SandsWilmington News-Journal — 27 Nov 1963
  32. 50webSprintMark Paine — Nuclearabms.info
  33. 51webPublic Law 90-110-October 21, 1967U.S. Congressional Record
  34. 52reportAN/FPS-16(AX) Radar Modeling and Computer SimulationDonald L. Hoihjelle — WSMR Instrumentation Directorate — February 1972
  35. 55webWhite Sands Missile Range AIAA Historic Aerospace Sitethe Historical Marker Database — 6 October 2019
  36. 59newsStarliner lands on 'bull's-eye' at White Sands Missile RangeLeah Romero — Las Cruces Sun News — May 25, 2022
  37. 71webWhite Sands School HomepageWhite Sands School
  38. 72webDevelopment of the Corporal: the embryo of the army missile programArmy Ballistic Missile Agency — April 1961