 Once upon a time, a time when the universe was very young, there was a shallow inland sea, the passing of untold ages. Its waters receded. The ancient ocean floor no longer cooled, split, as masses of molten lava beneath broke free. These thrusting skyward eventually shaped the massive mountains that we know today. Over the same untold millennia, the forces of erosion did their work, and weather hollowed out and smoothed. Thus was formed the great Tularosa land basin in the state of New Mexico. This is the story of its pioneers, yesteryears and todays. The first Europeans to enter the Tularosa were Spanish conquistadores, courageous adventurers and during hardship for wealth, glory and empire. With them went men and during the same hardships to spread the word of God. Much later would come other men from a young nation to the east. Seeking new homes, they pushed on across the basin headed west. But of these, some chose to stay, and for their protection came units of that new nation's growing army. Then with the discovery of gold came prospectors, a hardy breed who sought treasure in the rugged land of the Tularosa. Where some succeeded, many failed, and the bones of their animals still breach under the desert sun. By this time, the work begun by the men of the cross had borne fruit. Their missions had symbolized not only the spiritual life, but the advent of civilization. These were now joined by the churches and schools of newcomers, men of peace, who wanted homes, families. As the years passed, the old army posts were abandoned. Life in the basin might still be hard, but now it was safe. Moreover, the basin offered inducements. The cattlemen prospered, for a young and growing nation must be fed. Green farmlands dotted the Tularosa. Livestock flourished and came tragedy. Improvident abuse of the soil brought its own retribution, as drought struck the Tularosa. Nature once bounteous turned hostile. Many settlers moved on, leaving behind reminders of lost hopes, abandoned dreams. Corrals once full, they deserted. The great herds of cattle had vanished. Weather beaten ruins told the story of uprooted families, as farm and ranch now joined the old paid-out mines as ghostly reminders of a forgotten frontier. The great Tularosa, depleted and desolate, lay abandoned. Then in 1945, history took a hand. A strange new band of pioneers appeared upon the scene. In deepest secrecy, at a remote spot near Mockingbird Gap, the forerunners of a new day built a steel tower. They called the place Trinity Site. For the basin's dwindling population and their scattered settlements, the morning of July 16th dawned like any other sun-drenched day. On the sleeping desert, perhaps only the wakeful animals sensed something unusual afoot, as a strange new sound broke the morning stillness. Heard for the first time, the now familiar countdown was to usher in a new life for the Tularosa, a new era for mankind. In the ancient basin, man had unleashed the violence of atomic power. Elements fused and formed in a remote age when the basin was evolving, had yielded their secrets. Other men had opened up another technological frontier only a few months before this epic-making July 16th. Across the Atlantic, the Germans had launched their V-2 rocket. The V-2 had come too late to affect the war's outcome, but national leadership acknowledged its awe-inspiring significance. The nation, celebrating the return of peace, was committed to the new science of rocketry and space exploration. Now the Tularosa would be given another role. The great land basin was to be a test area for our new missile program. Here in that same July of 1945 was established White Sands Proving Ground, later renamed White Sands Missile Range. This was a type of installation new to America. Under operational control of the United States Army, White Sands was to be used by all three services in perfecting their respective missiles. To White Sands, there came an invaluable research aid, some 100 captured V-2 rockets. These became in effect sky-borne laboratories, probes into space yielding information and data for Tularosa's new pioneers. It was only a beginning. This was a prelude to a future rich with promise for scientific research. Missile-borne cameras recorded vistas more vast than ever before revealed to the eye of man. It was here at White Sands that huge new American rocket engines were soon being fired in the largest test stand than existing. Here, too, the Navy's Viking missile was test fired. The Viking was not a weapon, but an intricate research tool that increased our knowledge of outer space. In turn, that knowledge began to contribute to our progress in fields remote from missile development. Fields as diverse as radio communications and weather forecasting. Increased knowledge led to expanded research efforts. Air Force sleds raced at speeds never before achieved. To learn more about man's reactions to the conditions he may find at the edge of space and beyond, America's newest weapons have been tested. This is the Army's corporal, the nation's first operational surface-to-surface guided missile. The Army's Honest John, supersonic artillery rocket capable of carrying an atomic punch. Army's Nike Ajax, first watchdog of the skies over the nation's cities. The Army's Nike Hercules, powerful ground-to-air successor to the Ajax. The Army's Hawk that strikes with pinpoint accuracy. The Army's Little John, light lethal and highly mobile field artillery missile. The Army's La Cross, a deadly accurate weapon designed to deliver tremendous firepower in support of ground troops. Army's Sargent, a surface-to-surface missile that can provide long-range atomic punch for field units. The Army's Nike Zeus, deadly anti-missile missile being developed to destroy aggressor long-range missiles. Today, the towering peaks of the Tula Rosa stand sentinels over a frontier far different from those that have marked the past history of the Great Basin. This is a frontier of science and its new pioneers are men and women dedicated to the expansion of that frontier. Here are men of science drawn from many fields. Technicians who may specialize in optics seeking improved photography of missile flight. Here are experts in the complex phases of electronics that embrace missile technology. Here are mathematicians and computer operators who convert coded data into employable form. And here too, the draftsmen who design the innumerable details involved in a missile system. Some are chemists or metallurgists who analyze fuels, oxidizers, metals, all the varied elements utilized in rocketry. Others are machinists, welders, men of many skills and professions. Today's pioneer may live in El Paso, Texas, for modern highways have melted miles into minutes. Closer to the range are smaller communities he may choose for his home. The flavor of the old southwest lives on, but the day of the weather beaten rancho and the isolated adobe hut is gone. Today's civilian pioneer may work in one of the modern laboratories where missile components are tested. Or he may work in the buildings where they are assembled, checked out and prepared for firing. Should he be that other pioneer, the United States Army Missileman, he may share the experience of an early morning move out onto the range, perhaps to participate in the firing of a giant redstone missile. His convoy will move out of the area and pass the missile park, an impressive permanent exhibit where one stood only the German V2. Interruption of the long haul to the firing site may come from an aerial outspeaker announcing an intercept test by Army Hawk Project Command. An honest John Target missile is launched for its role. Hawk missile hurtles through the air. It swoops down for the kill. His drama as the camera arrests the action to offer visual evidence of the Hawk's unerring guidance system. Visual evidence of its lethal punch now continues its course uninterrupted. Passing en route the strange structure called a radar. This is the housing of a giant radar antenna for the Army's Nike Zeus anti-missile missile. Stands the 120 foot service structure which will be used to place research instruments in the great missile. This day the redstone will be fired 90 miles to an impact area, a distance which is but a fraction of its full range. During that flight its performance will be checked and data gathered by literally hundreds of instruments. In addition to the collection of performance data for this standard production line model of the redstone, today's firing will afford practical operation training for the field artillery troops participating. For these, the service structure is an object of interest for its use is solely for test and research purposes. In the field their formidable weapons are entirely mobile. A warning from a loudspeaker that a Nike Hercules is about to be fired on a nearby range brings to an upper platform of the service structure two of the artillerists anxious to watch. For them front row seats at a show that never fails to thrill its audience. It's the redstone's turn. Technicians have made final adjustments on the instruments to be carried in flight. These will measure fuel flow rates, pressures and temperatures. A brief moment in the sun will be the redstone's lifespan. Yet long enough to yield up new secrets for inquiring man. A redstone blockhouse goes the call that checks all units into the range command net. This is redstone project command calling range control over. Time is running on redstone at x minus six zero minutes out. Through the widely scattered instrumentation sites and to the safety and security control units go the orders and instructions from the range control command net. Telemetry stations such as this will receive performance data from the missile during flight. Now the range controller is told by a station chief that its instrumentation has been checked out and is ready to support the redstone firing. This is telemetry station number five. We are checked out and standing by. Yet another type of installation is heard from the Dovap station whose tower will transmit signals to the missile. Within the station itself is electronic equipment to record answering signals from the flying redstone. In combination these will determine the missile's velocity, acceleration and altitude. Dovap station number four. But now a technician in the Dovap station reports to the range controller that here too all is set to go. We're all set to go out. At the redstone blockhouse the critical moment has arrived for this is the operational keystone of the test. The redstone project officer now takes over. All stations. Now the units which will track the redstone's flight are checked out. This is radar five. We're standing by and ready. Go ahead. Over. In addition to radar the system includes stations for optical tracking. Here are devices that will scan the 4,000 square mile range. Among these precision instruments is the Ascania camera which can record the data as it scans. Now at range control station the last pre-flight scene is enacted. If the redstone blockhouse is the keystone of the operation the control station may be described as its nerve center. Here on its giant console is represented the whole complex of stations and installations. Bulbs of flash varying colors tell its operators of the readiness status for each. As the last stations to be heard from check in a growing pattern of green lights take over the console. Soon there is no longer a pattern. Instead bank upon bank of green lights unbroken. The universal signal has been given. Green for gold. And now the eight-story tall tactical redstone stands ready. The countdown has begun. Twenty. Nineteen. That same countdown that had once startled the Tularosa's wildlife and has through the years become a familiar sound. Thirteen. Twelve. Eleven. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Five. Seven. The cooler heater unit falls free. Missile away. The complex of tracking devices follows its flight. Each element coordinated into the master pattern that will test the firing and provide data for future flights. Into operation as the missile reaches the end of its trajectory goes a terminal tracker following the downward flight. The show on stage has ended but behind the scenes its drama continues. Computing machines have already taken up the work of transcribing the data collected from the firing. In usable form this will be distributed to countless organizations involved in our missile program. We have seen but a few of the highlights of the adventure into the future which is White Sands missile range. The end of that adventure is not now foreseeable but some immediate rewards of this new pioneering are abundantly with us today. Mighty weapons for the defense of our free world. New inventions too for better living. Greater knowledge of the skies above. The gateway to space. Who can say what future wonders will spring from the great land basin. Once a frontier for a growing nation it stands today a new frontier on the threshold of the future.