White Sands Missile Range Park

On July 9th, 1945, the White Sands Proving Ground (WSPG) was established in New Mexico as a test site for German and American rockets, its location chosen for fulfilling the requirements that it be flat, unpopulated, and have year round clear skies. Seven days later, at 5:29:45 AM on July 16th, 1945, the world entered the atomic age with the test detonation of “The Gadget” at a location near the northern boundary of the range, referred to as the “Trinity Site.” This was project Trinity, the world’s first detonation of an atomic weapon. On September 26th, 1945, the first rocket was launched from White Sands Proving Ground — a modified Tiny Tim, a US Navy air-to-surface rocket that was used in WWII. In its first full year of operation, in 1946, 32 missiles would be launched from the site. From there, available firing records released to the public put the total at 54,813 from 1945 to 1977. And with all of the activity, tracking and communications networks were installed in the surrounding mountains, making WSPG one of the most heavily instrumented test sites in the world. The US Army, under whom the site is run, the US Navy, USAF and NASA would all have a presence at White Sands.

It was on May 1st, 1958, that the name of the site was changed to more accurately reflect its mission, and it became White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), also referred to as the “Birthplace of America’s Missile and Space Activity.”

The White Sands Missile Range Museum and Missile Park trace the history of American missile and space activity, and are free and open to the public year-round. While the museum adheres to limited holiday and weekend hours, the Missile Park in particular is open from sunrise to sunset every day. What follows are photos I took on my walk through the park — by no means an exhaustive and full account of what is on display there. If you want to learn more, the museum’s website has a dedicated page for the park here.