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 orbiter 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. 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 on March 30, 1982, for STS-3.
Boeing's Starliner Calypso returned from a 49-hour Orbital Test Flight at 12:57 UTC on December 22, 2019. 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 1993-1996 at the harbor.
Landing history No. Date Flight Spacecraft Landing site Result 1 30 March 1982 STS-3 Runway 17 2 22 December 2019 Boeing Orbital Flight Test 3 25 May 2022 Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2 4 7 September 2024 Boeing Crew Flight Test
References
External links Historic American Engineering Record documentation, all filed under White Sands, Dona Ana County, NM: