Missile Range

White Sands Missile Range is immense (almost 3200 square miles).  No missile testing where we were today but we did see their museum.  They have a rocket park with 50 different types of rockets, missiles, and aircraft.

This one is cool.  The sign says "This spacecraft was a section of the Voyager Balloon System which was launched near Roswell and landed on White Sands Missile Range.  These bright, shiny aeroshells projected an illusion of flying saucer.  Aeroshell was designed for slowing down a missile for a landing on Mars.  This display is believed to be the only one "in captivity"."  Interesting.

The museum has unsettling things like discussion of the Trinity Site (first place where a nuclear device was detonated) and bomb shelters, interesting things like lots of different minerals and crystals found on the range and equipment to film missile tests, and cool things like this.  It's a Darth Vader helmet given to the range to thank them for help obtaining sounds used in the Star Wars movies.  They recorded the sounds of various missiles taking off along with the sounds of a guy wire on a tower.  I'd heard that the sound had been used for laser blasts but didn't know it was recorded here.  Very cool!