White Sands Missile Range: "Tularosa Frontier " 1960 US Army The Big Picture TV-470

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"Tularosa Frontier" is a film documentary, skillfully photographed and written, covering the historical achievements and present progress of the White Sands Missile Range in developing missiles for national defense. Opening with a review of the historical highlights of the Tularosa Basin, brief sequences are shown of Spanish conquistadores, early-day prospectors, wagon trains, cowboys, Indians, and the Cavalry, culminating in the first "A" bomb explosion which took place on the present-day White Sands Missile Range. The body of the film goes on to scenes of an early-day V-2 missile test. There follow brief sequences of technological "firsts" achieved at White Sands (e.g., missile-borne camera shots of the earth, the Viking missile, high-speed sled tests, static motor tests, and many others. Back dropped by the Oregon Mountains of New Mexico, "Tularosa Frontier" becomes a picture posing the question: "What does the future hold?"

Originally a public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.

The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_Missile_Range

Wikipedia license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a military testing area operated by the United States Army. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on July 9, 1945...

The White Sands Test Center headquartered at the WSMR "Post Area" has branches for Manned Tactical Systems & Electromagnetic Radiation and conducts missile testing and range recovery operations. Other operations on WSMR land include:

The Launch Abort Flight Test Complex for the Pad Abort-1

White Sands Launch Complex 37, built for Nike Hercules tests

White Sands Launch Complex 38, built for Nike Zeus tests with Launch Control Building now used for Patriot missile firings

"WSMR Main Post", which includes several smaller areas such as the housing area, golf course, "Navy Area", and "Technical Area" (a recreational shooting range just inside the "El Paso gate" on the south is outside of the Post Area.)

WSMR Museum tours and exhibits, which include V-2 rocket returned in May 2004 after restoration.

White Sands Hall of Fame, which inducts members such as the first range commander (1945 - 1947), Col. Harold Turner, in 1980.

1972 DoD Centers for Countermeasures (CCM), which evaluate precision guided munitions and other devices in electronic counter- and counter-countermeasures environments.

1963 NASA White Sands Test Facility's ground station for Tracking and Data Relay Satellites and the SDO ground station with 2 18 m (59 ft) antennas.

The North Oscura Peak facility of the AFRL Directed Energy Directorate

Chronology

1930: Robert Goddard began rocket testing in New Mexico.

1941-04-13: US World War II preparations established the Army Air Base, Alamogordo 

1942 Biggs Army Airfield construction began near El Paso (1947 Biggs AFB, 1973 Biggs AAF)--the region's nearby Deming AAF, Ft Sumner AAF, and South Aux Fid #1 transferred to "Army Div Engrs" in 1946.

1940s: When the range was formed, ranchers' land was leased and, in the 1970s, taken permanently to expand the area available for testing...