Trinity Site: 1945-1995

A National Historic Landmark
White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

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"The effects could well be called unprecedented, magnificent, beautiful, stupendous, and terrifying. No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before. The lighting effects beggared description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun."

Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell

White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range has developed from a simple desert testing site for the V-2 into one of the most sophisticated test facilities in the world. The mission of White Sands Missile Range begins with a customer--a service developer, or another federal agency, which is ready to find out if engineers and scientists have built something which will perform according to job specifications. It ends when an exhaustive series of tests has been completed and a data report has been delivered to the customer.

Between the beginning and the end of the test program, be it the Army Tactical Missile System or newly designed automobiles, range employees are involved in every operation connected with the customer and his product. The range can and does provide everything from rat traps to telephones, from equipment hoists and flight safety to microsecond timing.

We shake, rattle and roll the product, roast it, freeze it, subject it to nuclear radiation, dip it in salt water and roll it in the mud. We test its paint, bend its frame and find out what effect its propulsion material has on flora and fauna.

In the end, if it's a missile, we fire it, record its performance and bring back the pieces for post mortem examination. All test data is reduced and the customer receives a full report.

For more information on Trinity Site or White Sands Missile Range contact:

Public Affairs Office (STEWS-PA)

White Sands Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range, N.M. 88002-5047

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