Green River Launch Complex
 Sign: "Condition of Entry to Utah Launch Complex"
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Oblique image of site
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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 a Pershing 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."
Originally 3,450 acres (1,400 ha), the installation had several separated areas:
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 ~25,000 sq ft (0.57 acres) 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 38°36′28″N 110°35′53″E / 38.6078°N 110.5980°E on Gilson Butte (operations relocated to Green River in 1971.)
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