Ĭurrent operations Ground-based electro-optical deep-space surveillance telescopes performing space surveillance mission. The White Sands V-2 Launching Site used for a V-2 static test firing on 15 March 1946, and for the first US V-2 launch on 16 April 1946, received landmark designation on 3 October 1985.On 21 December 1965, the Trinity Site, selected in November 1944 for the Trinity nuclear test conducted on 16 July 1945, was designated a National Historic Landmark district, and added to the National Register of Historic Places on 15 October 1966. There have been no regularly scheduled commercial passenger flights from Las Cruces International Airport since 25 July 2005, when Westward Airways ceased operations although General aviation, New Mexico Army National Guard (4 UH-72 Lakota Helicopters), private charters and CAP, among others, still use the airport. Highway 70, which 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.Įl Paso International Airport is the nearest airport with regularly scheduled commercial flights. New Mexico State Road 213 enters the range from the south from Chaparral, New Mexico and terminates at U.S. White Sands National Park and the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge are federally-protected natural areas contained within the borders of WSMR. WSMR is located between Las Cruces, New Mexico to the west, Alamogordo, New Mexico 40 miles to the east, and Chaparral, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas to the south. Holloman Air Force Base borders WSMR to the east and WSMR borders the 600,000-acre (2,400 km 2) McGregor Range Complex at Fort Bliss to the south (southeast Tularosa Basin and on Otero Mesa) making them contiguous areas for military testing. Geography įor the geography and ecology of the WSMR area, see White Sands, New Mexico and Basin and Range Province.Īs the largest military installation in the United States, WSMR encompasses almost 3,200 sq mi (8,300 km 2) including parts of Doña Ana, Otero, Socorro, Sierra, and Lincoln counties in southern New Mexico. The site of the 1945 Trinity explosion became part of WSMR. This was the only time that NASA used WSMR as a landing site for the space shuttle. On 30 March 1982 NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia landed on the Northrop Strip at WSMR as the conclusion to mission STS-3.While its intended target was inside of WSMR, the rocket instead flew south and impacted 180–200 miles (290–320 km) south of the Mexican border in the Mapimi Desert in the northeastern corner of the Mexican state of Durango. 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.Exactly two weeks later, on May 29, 1947, a modified V-2 sounding rocket veered off course and crashed on top of a rocky knoll about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of the Juárez business district, leaving a 24 feet (7.3 m) deep by 50 feet (15 m) wide crater.On 15 May, 1947, a V-2 rocket fired from WSMR veered off course and landed 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Alamogordo, New Mexico.(This was followed by the testing of American rockets, which continues to this day, along with testing other technologies.) Of these, 67 were test-fired between 19 from the White Sands V-2 Launching Site. After the conclusion of World War II, 100 long-range German V-2 rockets that were captured by U.S. On 16 July 1945, the first atomic bomb (code named Trinity) was test detonated at Trinity Site near the northern boundary of the range, seven days after the White Sands Proving Ground was officially established, near the towns of Carrizozo and San Antonio.( 33☄0.636′N 106☂8.525′W / 33.677267°N 106.475417°W / 33.677267 -106.475417).The missile range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range. White Sands National Park founded in the 1930s is located within the range. It then became the White Sands Proving Ground on 9 July 1945. The range was originally established in 1941 as the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, where the Trinity test site lay at the northern end of the Range, in Socorro County near the towns of Carrizozo and San Antonio. White Sands Missile Range ( WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico.
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