"Lt. Col. Harold R. Turner, White Sands Proving Ground commanding officer, today blamed 'peculiar phenomena' for the erratic test flight of a German V-2 rocket which landed only six miles east of Alamogordo yesterday afternoon."
- Las Cruces Sun-News, May 16, 1947
Return to Part 1
Trouble in the Desert
The German Vengeance-2 (V-2) rocket gathered momentum and accelerated from White Sands Proving Ground's (WSPG) "Launch Complex 33" to a maximum speed of 1,700 meters per second all data appeared nominal. The rocket climbed to an intermediate altitude of 40 miles. Radar technicians assigned to U. S. Army Ordnance watched in amazement as an unidentified target suddenly appeared next to the ascending missile. [ Source: United States Civilian Space Programs, 1958-1978, p. 166.]
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