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National Geographic : 1950 Oct
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526 d B :I. ca 5; ~* "LZI+ s"; "3;",. "~. X ~ i:;";":~ White Sands l'roving Gro One Rocket's Impact Dug a Crater 30 Feet Deep Falling in one piece, the missile struck the desert at a speed of m than 3,000 feet per second, and the remains of it were never recove Most V-2's are blown apart in the air at about 40 miles' altitude that the war head and main body fall separately with much force (page 528). White Sands Proving Ground lies in south-central New Mex ico in the Tularosa Basin, be tween the San Andres and Sac ramento Mountain ranges, about 50 miles north of El Paso, Texas. Its name is de rived from the White Sands National Monument, which is located within the proving ground area.* The site, chosen after a sur vey of the entire United States, i is flat, timberless, and sparsely populated, making it ideal for the firing of long-range rockets. ' Cloudless skies prevail about 85 percent of the time, so that rockets can be followed through out their flights by telescopes and cameras. Army Ordnance is in charge of the proving ground, although units of all the armed services are stationed there, as well as civilian scientists representing many industrial concerns and universities. Assembly and launching of the V-2's at White Sands is a '""' complicated, exacting process, performed by the General Elec lore tric Company under the techni red. so * See "White Sands of Alamo less gordo," by Carl P. Russell, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, August, 1935. The National Geographic Magazine S. .. ... insects, but the results have not yet been determined. Puffs and trails of smoke have been released from rockets . to learn the direction of the wind at various heights. Samples of air at various al titudes have been captured in steel bottles strong enough to survive the rocket's fall. The samples disprove a long-held be lief that helium and hydrogen, being lighter than oxygen and nitrogen, would rise higher in the earth's atmosphere and con centrate at the upper levels. The bottles' contents showed that the proportions of these four gases in the air is no dif ferent up to 45 miles aloft than at sea level. Lonely Desert Scene of Rocket Tests .* .. *r \Jv - *^ '"-
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