Naval Air Station Banana River - Operational History

Operational History

see: Eastern Range and 6555th Aerospace Test Group for expansive history

On May 17, 1950, the base was renamed the "Long Range Proving Ground Base" but three months later was renamed "Patrick Air Force Base", in honor of Major General Mason Patrick.

On May 3, 1951, the Long Range Proving Ground Division was assigned to the newly-created Air Research and Development Command (ARDC). The next month the division was redesignated the Air Force Missile Test Center (AFMTC).

Cost comparison studies done in the early 1950s pointed out the desirability of letting contractors operate the station. The first range contract was signed with Pan American World Services on December 31, 1953. The Air Force Missile Test Center began transferring property and equipment to Pan American World Services at the end of that year. Pan American operated under contract to the Air Force for the next 34 years (until early October 1988). In 1988, the old range contract was divided into the Range Technical Services (RTS) and the Launch Base Services (LBS) contracts. The RTS contract was awarded to Computer Sciences Raytheon (CSR) in June 1988, and the LBS contract was awarded to Pan American World Services (later known as Johnson Controls) in August 1988.

The Eastern Range supported a variety of missile and manned and unmanned space programs in the 1960s, making it a regular focus of media attention. In the 1960s, a test range office at Patrick AFB with a missile backdrop was used to film scenes for the TV sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie, which was set in nearby Cocoa Beach (no cast was present). But by the mid-1970s, the demise of the Apollo manned space program and the end of land-based ballistic missile development at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station signaled a downturn in fortunes, and on February 1, 1977, the "Air Force Eastern Test Range" organization was inactivated and its functions transferred to Detachment 1 of the Space and Missile Test Center (SAMTEC) until the activation of the Eastern Space and Missile Center in 1979 on October 1, 1979. In 1990, ESMC was transferred from the inactivating Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) to the newly established Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). On November 12, 1991 ESMC was inactivated and the 45th Space Wing (45 SW) assumed its remaining functions.