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While on vacation in late 1997, I stopped by the White Sands Missile Range. It has changed from my last visit (1985, I think...). The Missile Garden and museum had moved from the inner part of the main base to just inside of the guard post. The hours had also changed from what I remembered: the museum is now only open on weekdays. It used to only be open on weekends, so of course, that's when I visited... the museum was closed, but I could still wander among the missile garden. (The museum is now also open on weekends, but it wasn't in 1997 when I visited.) The missiles are in rather poor shape: they look as if white latex paint had been crudely applied with a large brush. But at least they have the proper shapes. I was also surprised at the size of some of them... The most interesting of the exhibits to me is the "flying saucer" testbed for the Mars landing program. I seem to recall that they used to have a V-2, but it's not in the garden now. (As I have since found out, the V-2 is still in the 'old' missile garden, about 200 yards down the road from the museum. You can visit the museum's web site at http://www.wsmr-history.org/)
The paint jobs have since been improved, according to the photos by Scott McLeod.
Click on the thumbnail or caption to get to the full size images.
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