![]() Many of the range's old missile and space programs either matured or disappeared by the late 1960s. Consequently, management of what was known as the Merritt Island Launch Area, or MILA, went to NASA, and the Air Force retained control of Cape Canaveral.īy September 1963, the range extended around the tip of South Africa to the island of Mahe in the Indian Ocean. Though the agreement mentioned a "single manager concept" for operating the range, it also sanctioned the principle of divided ownership in the launch area. 24, 1961, the Webb-Gilpatrick Agreement between NASA and the Department of Defense was signed to establish funding practices on the range. The agency also had three major launch complexes of its own - 34, 36 and 37 - under construction on the Cape for the Atlas-Centaur and Saturn programs. Around October 1990, "Test" was dropped from the name, and the range currently is known as the Eastern Range.īy 1961, NASA was using old Air Force and Army launch sites on Cape Canaveral for its Mercury Program. On May 15, 1964, the name of the range was changed to the Eastern Test Range, as it was known throughout the Gemini and Apollo programs. The range starts at the launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center and extends eastward over the Atlantic Ocean and into the Indian Ocean where it meets the Western Range, which is the space launch range that supports launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Image above: The Eastern Range, which was unofficially called the Florida Missile Test Range in 1952, as seen above. It unofficially was called the Florida Missile Test Range in 1952, and officially, the Atlantic Missile Range beginning in May 1958 though NASA's Mercury Program. Over the years, the range's name changed several times. By January 1960, the range extended 5,000 miles and included 13 major stations, about 91 outlying sites, a fleet of ships and three marine support stations. During the 1950s, the range comprised nine tracking sites over the first 1,000 miles. ![]() So, in the 1949-50 timeframe the Bahamas Long-Range Proving Ground, or just Long-Range Proving Ground, was developed. The Air Force needed a range for over-water flight trajectories, which make long-range missile flights possible over an area relatively free of world shipping lanes and inhabited land masses. ![]() A primary example of that teamwork is the development and operation of the Eastern Range.Ī range is an area in and over which rockets are fired for testing and tracking. ![]() Air Force at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. To launch a rocket or a space shuttle from Florida's Space Coast takes teamwork from two distinct federal agencies - NASA at Kennedy Space Center and the U.S. ![]()
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