The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

482 White Sands Missile Range
Edward White The Apollo 1 crew: Ed White (center), Virgil Grissom (left), and Roger Chaffee (right). NASA
White Sands Missile Range
A major facility that supports missile testing and development
for the U.S. armed services, NASA and other
government agencies, and private industry. Occupying
almost 8,300 square kilometers in the Tularosa Basin of
south-central New Mexico, it is the largest military installation
in the country—larger than the states of Delaware
and Rhode Island combined.
White Sands Proving Ground (its name changed in
1958) was established on July 9, 1945. A launch complex
was quickly set up and used for the site’s first “hot
firing” of a Tiny Tim missile, on September 26, 1945.
Soon this complex was the focal point for captured V-2
(see “V” weapons) launches and, in time, the developmental
testing of such missiles as Nike, Viking, and
Corporal.
NASA used the White Sands range for testing the Saturn’s
launch escape system and, later, the engines, components,
and materials of the Space Shuttle Orbiter.
White Sands also provides an alternate landing site for
the Shuttle, and on March 30, 1982, the Orbiter Columbia
touched down on the range’s Northrup Strip after its
third flight into space. Shuttle astronauts train over
Northrup Strip (now named White Sands Space Harbor),
practicing landings in a Gulfstream jet that simulates
Orbiter glide characteristics, and on the ground terminal
of NASA’s TDRSS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
System), also located at the range.
White Sands Proving Ground
The name of White Sands Missile Range from 1945 to
1958.