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World events, technology and a surge in technically competent people came together in the mid-50s. The USA found itself in two races with the former Soviet Union: manned space flight and nuclear weapons; both required the development of reliable rocket boosters that could travel distances over 6000 miles with precision of less than one mile. Cape Canaveral, Florida became home for testing the missiles. Guiding these 100-ton rockets was the exclusive job of General Electric Company. They developed, deployed and operated all of the systems that guided and tracked every missile from the very beginning through the 90’s; both at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB in California. 40 years of development took us to the moon, Mars, the gas giants of Saturn, Jupiter and their satellites, the asteroids, and even farther. Following a slow start, The Program flourished in the feared Military-Industrial Complex. President Eisenhower believed that the manned space program and the military ICBMs should be separately managed entities. The continued failure of the “peace rocket”, Vanguard was an embarrassment when the Soviets placed Sputnik in orbit. Finally, in frustration, we orbited our satellite with Werner Von Braun’s rocket from his team in Huntsville, Al: ICBM technology. This had, in the end, a positive outcome; the panic of being “behind” the Soviets caused a massive buildup of space technology that might have been less vigorously funded had we been first in space. The early boosters: Atlas and Titan, became the rockets that played a crucial role in the early years of the manned space program. As these early ICBMs became obsolete weapons, they morphed into the rockets that boosted John Glenn and others in Project Mercury, and were the antecedents of modern ICBM’s and the most powerful of the USA’s manned space program boosters: Saturn. In an agreement with the United Kingdom and Ireland, the USA leased land in the Bahamas Archipelago to establish the northern bases of the Atlantic Missile Range (AMR) that stretched from Cape Canaveral past Ascension Island to the tip of Africa in the South Atlantic. From General Electric in Syracuse, NY to these islands came new, powerful radars that would control and track missiles to provide “Range Safety” for the Program. A few of us were fortunate enough to be part of this exciting period. San Salvador Island, the farthest east of the Bahamas was chosen as Station 5. The SanSal Base was operated by Pan Am. GE operated MOD I/System 4 with 35 young “Range Rats”, all about 22-25 years old to provide Range Safety for every missile shot from July 19, 1958 through Jan 23, 1961. GE was the enabler, The RANGE RATS were the implementers. We came new from the universities and technical schools of the Navy and Air Force. We came to SanSal for many reasons; money, a remote adventure, technical challenge, escapes, mistakes (confusion with San Salvador, capital of El Salvador!)... This site will give you a glimpse of what we were, where we worked and our Mission. |
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Credits for pictures, documents and stories: O-50 and... I apologize for any omissions. Let me know, Thanks! |
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This site was updated on Oct 13, 2005 |
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