Conference 7.286::space

870.0. "White Sands Missile Range" by VERGA::KLAES (Quo vadimus?) Thu Sep 16 1993 16:32

Article: 72770
Newsgroups: sci.space
From: [email protected]
Subject: WSMR Fact Sheet
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News Client)
Organization: NASA/JSC/DE44, Mission Operations, Space Station Systems 
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 18:34:32 GMT
 
(Note: I scanned this, then used Optical Character Recognition
and manual clean-up.  This process tends to induce errors in
the text, so don't count on this as gospel.  -- Ken Jenks)
 
WSMR Fact sheet
 
Public Affairs Office, White Sands Missile Range.
New Mexico 88002
For more information dial (505) 678-1134 or 1700
 
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE AT A GLANCE
 
White Sands Missile Range is a multi-service test range whose main
function is.  the support of missile development and test programs for
the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), other government agencies and private industry.
 
The White Sands range is under operational control of the U.S. Army
Test and Evaluation Command (TECOM), Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Maryland.  TECOM is the Army's test laboratory for planning and
conducting engineering and service tests of all materials from missiles
to rifles, tanks to trucks, clothing to radios, and from aviation to
fire control equipment.
 
The missile range is in the Tularosa Basin of south-central New
Mexico.  The range boundaries extend almost 100 miles north and south
and 40 miles east to west.  At 3,200 square miles the range is the
largest military installation in the country and could easily encampass
the states of Delaware and Rhode Island.  The headquarters area is 20
miles east of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and 45 miles north of El Paso,
Texas.
 
Before World War II the land in the missile range was used for grazing
by cattle and goat ranchers. Prospectors hunted for a variety of
minerals in the mountain ranges on White Sands and same small-scale
mining was conducted. Earlier, as the Spanish colonized the area,
immigrants gathered salt in the Tularosa Basin lakebeds.  And for
centuries native Americans roamed the basin and mountains.
 
During World War II, with the eye opening German rocket work, the U.S.
Army Ordnance Corps recognized the possibilities of rocket warfare and
sponsored research and development in methods of missile guidance.
White Sands Missile Range was established July 9, 1945, as White Sands
Proving Ground (name changed in 1958) to be America's testing range for
the development of rocket technology and missile weapons.
 
As soon as White Sands was established work began on a launch camplex
for testing this technology.  On Sept. 26, 1945, a Tiny Tim booster was
fired at the complex to test its compatability with a launch tower. It
was the first hot firing on the proving ground.  On Oct. 11 a Tiny Tim
boosted a WAC Corporal rocket from the tower. The WAC Corporal's engine
then fired and propelled the vehicle to an altitude of 43 miles.
 
Later this launch complex was the focal point for V-2 firings and
developmental testing for such missiles as Nike, Viking, Corporal,
Lance and Multiple Launch Rocket System.  Because of that historic
work, the National Park Service designated the complex a national
historic landmark in October 1985.  Today the complex is known as
Launch Complex 33 and is still active.
 
Trinity Site is another national historic landmark at White Sands and
is located near the north boundary.  The world's first atomic bomb was
exploded by the Manhattan Project at Trinity Site on July 16, 1945, and
marked the beginning of the atomic age.  The landmark, which includes
the McDonald ranch house where the plutonium core to the bomb was
assembled, is open to the public on the first Saturdays of April and
October.
 
In addition to a fascinating history, White Sands is rich in natural
assets.  The range enoampasses two mountain ranges, White Sands
National Monument and the San Andres Wildlife Refuge.  The diversity of
wildlife supported on the range includes African oryx, desert bighorn
sheep, pronghorn, cougars, golden eagles and a variety of rattlesnakes.
 
Since 1960, WSMR has developed a total of four co-use areas adjacent to
the range's north and west boundaries.  The largest of these is the FIX
area on the north which is a 40-mile by 40-mile square.  White Sands
has agreements with the ranchers living in these areas which allow the
range to evacuate the residents several times each year.  The
evacuations, which almost double the size of the range when all areas
are used, permit testing of some of today's long-range missiles.
 
In addition to firing rockets and missiles on White Sands, the range
has developed launch facilities in other areas of New Mexico, Utah and
Idaho for long-range testing.  In these tests the missiles are fired
from a remote location and impact on WSMR.
 
White Sands also provides an alternate landing site for the space
shuttle program.  On March 30, 1982, the orbiter Columbia landed on the
range's landing strip after its third flight into space.  The landing
strip is used currently as the primary training site for shuttle pilots
to practice approaches and mock landings in the shuttle trainer aircraft.
 
Today White Sands is a unique ccmbination of geography, laboratories,
weather, personnel and support activities which make it ideal for
modern testing.  It works with missile systems from their cradles to
the grave, testing not only developmental systems but production units
to assure continuing quality.
 
A highly trained and motivated workforce is the key to the professional
testing done at the range.  Personnel strength is at 8,800 and is a mix
of military, civilian and contractor employees.  Half live in the Las
Cruces area while others commute daily from E1 Paso, Alamogordo and
other New Mexico areas.
 
To collect data during missions, the sprawling range is equipped with a
network of highly accurate optical and electronic instruments which are
essential for valid and valuable testing.  Sophisticated camputer
systems process and correlate the voluminous data to provide scientists
and range users with timely and reliable performance records.
 
White Sands Missile Range has more than 1,500 precisely surveyed
instrumentation sites and same 1,000 of the newest and most modern
types of optical and electronics instrument systems.  These include
long-range cameras, tracking telescopes, interferometer systems, radars
and telemetry.  For general use, radars, telemetry and optic systems
include both mobile and fixed systems.
 
A timing system provides fixed-timing rates, elapsed time and control
signals.  Control signals are combined into pulsed signals in standard
format for distribution and utilization.  Other range services include
calibration, communication, meteorological, photographic, television
and aerial target support along with the relatively easy and fast
recovery of test items which facilitates evaluation.
 
Laboratory testing facilities are modern and varied.  They include
nuclear environments, weapon systems simulation, guidance and control,
propulsion, climatic, microbiological and metallographic.
 
To meet the spectrum of requirements set up by the various range users
for their increasingly camplex test programs, WSMR has developed broad
instrumentation capabilities and operational techniques.  In addition
to real-time and deferred-time, capabilities include simultaneous
testing, measurements of trajectory, attitude and events, vehicle
electramagnetic signature and re-entry phenomena.
 
 
MAJOR DIRECTORATES
 
In order to accomplish missions prescribed by the Department of Defense
and Department of Army, WSMR is divided into various directorates and
admlinistrative/support offices. The mlajor TECOM directorates include
National Range Operations (NR), Materiel Test Directorate (MTD),
Instrumentation (ID), Directorate of Information Management (DOIM),
Army Air Operations (AA) and Nuclear Effects (NE).
 
NR plans and executes national range mlissions.  It directs operations
of the range and support activities such as data collection and
provides direction and control of the range scheduling, operations and
utilization of resources.
 
MTD is the testing arm of WSMR.  It provides field and laboratory
testing and evaluation of Army missile systems, materiel and equipment.
 
ID provides the instrumentation systems, equipment and facilities which
comprise the Major Range and Test Facility Base.  They perfonm the
planning, research, engineering, development, procurement, installation
and training required to maintain the instrumentation consistent with
user requirements.
 
The DOIM function integrates all areas related to the distribution of
information at WSMR, to include computers, libraries and mail
distribution.  DOIM provides engineering, modification, installation,
operations and maintenance for communications, automation, visual
information, records management and publications, and support for all
range users.
 
AA provides aerial reconnaissance, aerial recovery and administrative
flight support for WSMR.
 
NE has the most complete assembly of nuclear weapon environment
simulators in the Department of Defense.  This includes a solar furnace
capable of focusing sunlight to reach a temperature on test items of up
to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
 
 
TENANTS
 
Sharing White Sands Missile Range and many of its facilities are
several tenant organizations.
 
The U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division - White Sands
Detachment (NAWC) at White Sands Missile Range is the land-locked arm
of the Navy s missile, rocket, gun and directed energy programs.  NAWC
was established at WSMR in 1945. Today, at its "USS Desert Ship,
(LLS-l)," NAWC tests modern Naval surface weapon systems.  In its
research rockets program, NAWC continues providing sounding rocket
launch support for NASA, the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, the Naval
Research Laboratory and the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization,
and recently added oommercial customers to the list.  Their high energy
laser activity is responsible for the Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical
Laser and the SEALITE Beam Director at the High Energy Laser Systems
Test Facility.
 
The Deputy for Air Foroe acts as his service s representative on the
WSMR Ccmmanding General s staff.  The Deputy's offioe, on the main post
of the missile range, serves as the sponsor for all Air Force research
and development program testing on WSMR.  It coordinates these program
requirements with the range, as well as assisting users in the
preparation of necessary range program documentation.  It additionally
coordinates range support for all tactical flight training and Air
Foroe exercises conducted on range.  The Deputy for Air Force also
serves as the executive agent for WSMR on all FAA matters and provides
real-time control and management of the range's restricted airspaoe.
 
The Battlefield Environment Directorate (BED) is one of the U.S. Army
Research Laboratory (ARL) tenants at WSMR.  Its activities on range
date back to 1946 when, as an agent of the Army Signal Corps, it
provided radar and communications support for the German V-2 rocket
program.  Today the laboratory has the research mission of maximizing
world-wide cambat and strategic effectiveness by continually improving
Army-required, atmospheric-related products.
 
Revealing the face of weapon system vulnerability through its many
electronic disguises is the business of the Electronic Warfare Division
of ARL's Survivability/Lethality Analysis Directorate.  Since 1952 the
division has been determining the electronic countermeasures
vulnerability of all Army missiles and other systems affected by
electromagnetic radiation.  Another major effort is devoted to
ferreting out the vulnerabilities of foreign missile systems which pose
a potential threat to the Army in the field.
 
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is one of the
newer users of the range.  WSMR was the site for the initial tests of
the launch escape systems on the Saturn booster for the moon-shot
program that put man on the moon and returned him.  Recently, NASA's
major efforts have been directed toward the space shuttle program.
Most of the shuttle's rocket engines, components and materials used in
the orbiter and payloads were tested at the NASA White Sands Test
Facility before the first shuttle flight.  Shuttle astronauts train
over Northrup Strip (now named White Sands Space Harbor), practicing
landings in a jet aircraft which simulates shuttle flight
characteristics.  The third shuttle mission ended at Northrup Strip on
March 30, 1982.  The ground terminal of the Tracking and Data Relay
Satellite System (TDRSS) also is located at the NASA White Sands Test
Facility.
 
The U.S. Army Training and Dcctrine Command's (TRADOC's) Analysis
Command (TRAC) employs a highly technical work force.  Using a variety
of analytic tools, including simulations on its computer graphics
facility and peripheral equipment, TRAC exercises weapon systems in
various scenario and threat situations.  Results are then analyzed and
TRAC evaluates weapons for effectiveness versus cost.  TRAC also has a
leading role in the development and tactical analysis.  It is also
involved in training effectiveness analysis throughout the Army.
 
-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/DE44, Mission Operations, Space Station Systems
      [email protected]  (713) 483-4368
 
     "Good ideas are not adopted automatically.  They must be driven into
       practice with courageous impatience." -- Admiral Hyman G. Rickover