The Utah Launch Complex was a Cold War military subinstallation of White Sands Missile Range for USAF and US Army rocket launches. In addition to firing Pershing missiles, the complex launched Athena RTV missiles with subscale (test) warheads of the Advanced Ballistic Re-entry System to reentry speeds and impact at the New Mexico range. From 1964 to 1975 there were 244 Green River launches, including 141 Athena launches and 60 Pershing 1 and Pershing 1a launches to 281 kilometers altitude. "Utah State Route 19 runs through the Green River Launch Complex, which is south of the town and eponym of Green River."
Facilities
Originally , the installation had several separated areas: Cantonment area The post area had the entrance, headquarters and other offices, a fire station, telephone exchange, housing, and maintenance facilities. Prefabricated buildings (7) were for "supply, a telephone exchange, and engineer and transportation use", and "59 trailers [were] used as bachelor officers' quarters, offices, a mess hall, a laundry, and a latrine" ("city of trailers"). Athena storage area "Adjacent to the cantonment area [were] storage facilities for the Athena missile rocket motors" (e.g., Thiokol XM-33 E8 Castor (rocket stage) augmented by 2 Thiokol XM-19 EL Recruit for the 1st stage.) Athena support at the Army's Green River installation's was the responsibility of the Ogden Air Materiel Area (OOAMA) at Hill Air Force Base, where ammunition igloos stored Athena rocket motors (OOAMA calibration specialists deployed to the Green River site.) Athena Launch Complex Facilities "approximately five miles from the entrance of the site" included a blockhouse and 3 concrete launching pad each with a rail-movable temperature-controlled steel building: Green River Pad 1 () Green River Pad 2 (): 41 launches February 10, 1964 – September 25, 1969. Green River Pad 3 () 49 launches November 28, 1964 – September 17, 1971. Safety zone A "fall-back" area extended downrange as a safety zone for impact when an Athena malfunctioned during early flight, e.g., the 2nd Athena RTV fired (May 1963) "was destroyed shortly after launch." Geyer Site The Pershing Launch Complex with positions 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 where vehicles (e.g., mobile launchers) were emplaced for firings. The Pershing area also had a landfill. Green River Radar Complex A government instrumentation site was "five miles to the southeast [with] radars, telemetry, optical systems, frequency monitoring", and other equipment (an organization was the "radar and communications division")--cf. "a separate instrumentation site on a mountain ridge near the northern border of the facility" for tracking. Range Communications Station Charlie 401 Meteorology compound A meteorological tower was on the complex, which had NASA's High Resolution Wind Measurement Program (HIREWIMP). Pistol range The complex had a firearms range (e.g., for military police proficiency).
Related off-post sites included the nearby civilian Atlantic Research Corporation Assembly Area at a 1940s/50s Union Carbide uranium/vanadium facility outside of the Army complex where the company assembled Athenas as the prime contractor. Atlantic's "support operations and missile assembly area" of ~ included a "missile assembly building...payload assembly building, support operations building, balance building and storage area" (a water tower was also in the fenced compound.) The Athena Booster Drop Zone 1 (FUDS J08UT3006 in San Juan County) was a downrange "impact zone" for the Athena 1st-stage booster to nominally land after separation (32 residents in the zone were evacuated for 1/2 hour or less, e.g., ranchers were given per diem.) "The impact dispersion area lay about 45 miles southeast of Green River, between the Colorado River and the north edge of the Manti-LaSal National Forest [with ~5% in] Canyonlands National Park." (The drop zone for Athena stage 2 was located in New Mexico.) Green River complex personnel also oversaw operations at Utah's White Mesa radar complex and a Pershing launch site and safety area in southeast Utah—the Black Mesa Missile Launching Range had 34 firings May 26, 1965 – November 13, 1968, from on Gilson Butte (operations relocated to Green River in 1971.)