For Launch Complex 96 that fires toward White Sands, see
Fort Wingate .
NASA training and research site
White Sands Space Harbor (WSSH ) is a
spaceport in
New Mexico that was formerly used as a
Space Shuttle runway , a test site for rocket research, and the primary training area used by
NASA for
Space Shuttle pilots practicing approaches and landings in the
Shuttle Training Aircraft and
T-38 Talon aircraft. With its runways, navigational aids, runway lighting, and control facilities, it also served as a backup Shuttle landing site.
[1] WSSH is a part of the
White Sands Test Facility , and is located approximately 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of
Alamogordo, New Mexico , within the boundaries of the
White Sands Missile Range .
Runway facilities
In 1976, NASA selected Northrup Strip as the site for shuttle pilot training. A second runway was added crossing the original north-south landing strip, and in 1979 both lakebed runways were lengthened to 35,000 ft (10,668 m), which includes 15,000 ft (4,572 m) usable runway with 10,000 ft (3048 m) extensions on either end, to allow White Sands Space Harbor to serve as shuttle backup landing facility. While the Space Harbor was activated as a backup landing site for
STS-116 due to poor weather conditions at both
Edwards Air Force Base (high cross-winds) and
Kennedy Space Center (clouds and rain), White Sands was only used for one landing of the Space Shuttle, that of the
Space Shuttle
Columbia on March 30, 1982, for
STS-3 .
[2]
Boeing 's
Starliner
Calypso returned from a 49-hour Orbital Test Flight at 12:57 UTC on December 22, 2019, on runway 17/35. This marked only the second time an orbital vehicle has returned to Earth at White Sands.
Launch complex
The
McDonnell Douglas DC-X of the USAF Single Stage Rocket Technology (SSRT) program was launched 1993-96 at the harbor.
[3]
[4]
References
External links
Historic American Engineering Record documentation, all filed under White Sands, Dona Ana County, NM:
HAER No. NM-27, "
White Sands Space Harbor ", 38 data pages
HAER No. NM-28, "
White Sands Space Harbor, Area 1 ", 11 photos, 20 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-A, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Runway 17/35 ", 10 photos, 30 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-B, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Runway 23/05 ", 6 photos, 25 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-C, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Runway 20/02 ", 5 photos, 23 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-D, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Control Tower ", 9 photos, 29 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-E, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Weather Tower No. 4 ", 2 photos, 16 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-F, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, HUB Maintenance Facility ", 16 photos, 24 data pages, 4 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-G, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Fire Station No. 4 ", 3 photos, 20 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-H, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, HUB Generator Building ", 19 data pages
HAER No. NM-28-I, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, HUB Tool Storage Building ", 3 photos, 16 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-J, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Navigational Aid Control Building ", 2 photos, 16 data pages, 1 photo caption page
HAER No. NM-28-K, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Navigational Aid Storage Building ", 16 data pages
HAER No. NM-28-L, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Helicopter Staging Area ", 1 photo, 17 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-M, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, PAPI Control Building ", 5 photos, 18 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-N, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, PAPI Control Building ", 1 photo, 16 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-O, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, XENON Control Trailers ", 3 photos, 18 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-P, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Microwave Scanning Beam Landing Ground Stations ", 2 photos, 17 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-Q, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Crash/Rescue Standby Support GPS Buildings ", 1 photo, 15 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-R, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Crash/Rescue Standby Area Trailer ", 1 photo, 15 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-S, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, TACAN Beacon Station ", 1 photo, 16 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
HAER No. NM-28-T, "
White Sands Space Harbor Area 1, Waterhole ", 18 data pages
32°56′35.67″N 106°25′10.31″W / 32.9432417°N 106.4195306°W / 32.9432417; -106.4195306
Components
Orbiters Add-ons Sites Operations and training Testing Disasters Support Special Space suits Experiments
Derivatives Replicas Related