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Chapter 14. Gateways to Heaven

Unied States (pp. 302-305)

The first major American test site, White Sands Proving Ground, was activated in 1945. WSPG provided excellent facilities for development of the first-generation relatively small missiles. Other important test sites were in California, the Navy's Guided Missile Test Center at Point Mugu south of Santa Barbara and the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake. National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics launched its first rocket from a test station on Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia in 1945.

It became evident, however, that the future long-range ballistic and winged missiles, still on drawing boards, would require much larger and safer areas for testing. The rockets are very dangerous. They sometimes explode, and the first stages of multistage rockets come back to the ground downrange (that is, along the flight path of ascending rockets).

In one accident in 1947, a V-2 missile fired from White Sands deviated from its preset path and passed over El Paso, Texas, and the Mexican town Ciudad Juarez across the Rio Grande. Fortunately the missile hit a barren hill and nobody was hurt. New bigger and safer testing sites were needed to support development of future ICBMs and to eventually launch satellites to space.

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Wallops Island

NACA's Langley Aeronautical Laboratory (Hampton, Virginia) established a missile research Auxiliary Flight Research Station on Wallops Island in 1945. More than 14,000 various rockets were subsequently launched from Wallops.

The first space launch took place from Wallops on 16 February 1961. Wallops launched Scout rockets placed into orbit twenty satellites. The Scout was the first U.S. launch vehicle with exclusively solid-propellant propulsion. The last Scout lifted off Wallops in December 1985. Today, the Wallops Flight Facility is a part of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and responsible for suborbital research programs that include sounding rockets and high-altitude balloons.

The choice for the new rocket range fell on Cape Canaveral on the Florida's Atlantic coast. The cape had been known to Spanish seamen as Cabo de Canaveral (which meant the cape of reed or cane) since the 16th century. This area was settled much earlier than many other parts of Florida, and the cape housed a light house since 1843.

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Cape Canaveral and Baltimore Gun Club

Jules Verne's Baltimore Gun Club fired a manned projectile to the Moon in his novel From the Earth to the Moon. Jules Verne;s launch site was 15 miles inland from Tampa, Florida, only 100 miles from Cape Canaveral. A different kind of spaceship would take men from Cape Canaveral to the Moon 104 years later.

By the end of World War II, Cape Canaveral had remained a poorly developed area of sand and scrub palmetto. The isolated and relatively uninhabited place and the deactivated Banana River Naval Air Station 20 miles (32 km) south favored this Florida site. In addition, weather allowed launches all year around, with the occasional interruptions brought by hurricanes and thunderstorms. A deep-water port at the southern edge of the cape permitted convenient transportation of large-size rocket components and made possible development of submarine-launched missiles. On 11 May 1949, President Truman signed Public Law 60, authorizing the Secretary of the Air Force to establish the Joint Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral.

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Selection of Cape Canaveral

The site selection for the interservice joint proving ground began in 1946. Brigadier General William L. Richardson, Chief of the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Committee of the Joint Research and Development Board submitted a report "on 20 June 1947 ... recommending that a National Guided Missile Range be established as soon as possible. First choice for the launching site was in the vicinity of El Centro, California, firing southeast, and second choice was firing southeast from a launching site [at Cape Canaveral] near Banana River, Florida. The Joint Research and Development Board approved the report in July 1947 and delegated the implementation to the War Department, who in turn directed the Air Force to handle the matter ..." (Status Report, Long Range Proving Ground Committee, 2 January 1948).

The first choice site near El Centro was 100 miles (160 km) east from San Diego, California, just across the border from the Mexican town Mexicali. Because the launch from El Centro involved the overflight of the foreign territory, the Mexican government had to be approached.

"In December 1947, the Acting Secretary of State, Mr. Lovett, addressed a communication to the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, briefly outlining the project and requesting the Ambassador to suggest the best method of approaching the Mexicans on the question of the El Centro -- Gulf of California Range. On 9 January 1948, the Ambassador replied that, in his opinion, the best approach would be direct to the President of Mexico, Senor Miguel Aleman. The Ambassador pointed out that the President of Mexico would have to approve the proposition in the long run and it would be best to avoid entangling the project in the lower echelons of the Mexican government before reaching the final authority. The Ambassador requested and received permission from the State Department to approach President Aleman privately and informally on the project. The results of this interview indicated that it would be impossible to secure favorable agreement with Mexico. The Secretary of Defense was notified to this effect by the State Department on 27 January 1948" (Status Report, Long Range Proving Ground Committee, 2 February 1949).

The second best site at Cape Canaveral had to be discussed with the British military authorities because of the vicinity of the Bahama Islands. "On 28 January 1948, the proposal was submitted to the Office of Deputy Chief of the RAF Mission to the United States. The initial reaction was favorable."

Cape Canaveral offers an important advantage of safe launches over the ocean within a wide range of directions, the so-called allowable launch azimuths. The launch of a spacecraft has to be conducted along a precisely defined trajectory to achieve the desired orbit inclinations. (Orbit inclination is the angle between the satellite orbital plane and the plane of the Earth's equator.)

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An Act

To authorize the establishment of a joint long-range proving ground for guided missiles, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Air Force is hereby authorized to establish a joint long-range proving ground for guided missiles and other weapons by the construction, installation, or equipment of temporary or permanent public works, including buildings, facilities, appurtenances, and utilities, within or without the continental limits of the United States, for scientific study, testing, and training purposes by the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force ...

There is hereby authorized to be appropriated, .... not to exceed $75,000,000 to carry out the purposes ... of this Act ... .

Approved 11 May 1949.

Launch directions, or azimuths, from 35 to 120 deg (counted clockwise from the north direction) are possible from Cape Canaveral. This azimuth range includes the most energetically favorable direction due east, which takes the full advantage of the Earth's rotation at a given location. If a rocket is launched outside this allowable azimuth range, its falling parts could hit Newfoundland and the Eastern Seaboard (azimuth <35 deg) or Cuba (>120 deg).

On 1 October 1949, the new joint proving ground was activated at Cape Canaveral under the supervision of the Air Force. The construction of launching pads, rocket-processing facilities, and instrumentation sites began next year. The site would become known as the Air Force Eastern Test Range (AFETR) and later as the Eastern Space and Missile Center. The Air Force also took over the nearby Banana River Naval Air Station and reorganized it into the Patrick Air Force Base.

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Patrick AFB

Patrick Air Force Base was named in honor of Major General Mason M. Patrick, the chief of the Air Service of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and the postwar head of the Army Air Service.

The share of the tests of the civilian space vehicles and civilian launches was gradually increasing at Cape Canaveral, especially with the initiation of the Apollo program and its gigantic Saturn V launcher. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established in 1958. The growing civilian space activities at the Cape led to the government acquisition of the northern part of the nearby Merritt Island. In addition a large submerged area in the Mosquito Lagoon was obtained from State of Florida, dredged, and filled in ...

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