Jump to content

New Boston Space Force Station

Edit links
Coordinates: 42°56′32″N 71°38′10″W / 42.942350°N 71.636095°W / 42.942350; -71.636095
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mr248 (talk | contribs) at 08:34, 31 July 2021 (Adding short description: "United States Space Force facility in Hillsborough County, south central New Hampshire" (Shortdesc helper)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

New Boston Space Force Station
Near New Boston, New Hampshire in United States
New Boston Space Force Station
Shield of the Peterson-Schriever Garrison
New Boston SFS is located in the United States
New Boston SFS
New Boston SFS
Location in the United States
Coordinates42°56′32″N 71°38′10″W / 42.942350°N 71.636095°W / 42.942350; -71.636095
TypeUS Space Force station
Site information
OwnerDepartment of Defense
OperatorUnited States Space Force
Controlled by
ConditionOperational
Site history
Built1959 (1959) – 1960
In use1960 – 2019 (US Air Force)
2019 – present (US Space Force)
Garrison information
Current
commander		Lt. Col. David Zesinger
GarrisonPeterson-Schriever Garrison
Occupants23rd Space Operations Squadron

New Boston Space Force Station is a United States Space Force facility located in Hillsborough County in south central New Hampshire. It was transferred from the United States Air Force to the Space Force in the summer of 2020.[1] The installation occupies more than 2,800 acres (11 km2) in three towns: New Boston, Amherst, and Mont Vernon. It was originally established in 1942 as a practice area for bombers and fighter planes from nearby Grenier Army Air Field (now Manchester–Boston Regional Airport).[2] Starting in 1959, it was turned into a satellite-tracking station, providing the facilities most prominent feature, the weatherproof radomes which dot the hillside.[3] Since 2020 the facility has also provided line of sight telemetry tracking for commercial space launches by SpaceX[4]

New Boston SFS is operated by the 23d Space Operations Squadron (23 SOPS), a geographically separated unit (GSU) of Space Delta 6, part of Peterson-Schriever Garrison at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, a garrison command of the U.S. Space Force.

History

The New Boston Space Force Station dates back to 1942, when Grenier Field in Manchester was preparing to meet the demands of World War II.

On September 5, 1941, Colonel John Moore, commanding officer of the U.S. Army Air Corps at Grenier Field, wrote a letter proposing the government create a bombing range in New Boston near Joe English Pond. "The nature of the terrain around the pond is such that aerial bombing thereon would offer the elements of surprise, concealed approach and navigation to a point," Moore wrote. "It is believed that Joe English Hill (altitude 1,245 feet) would be a satisfactory stop for any ricochet bullets from ground machine gun targets."

The main gate at New Boston AFS as it existed in 1960

Eventually, land belonging to 16 families, 12 of them in New Boston, was taken at a cost of $23,200.

There was no electricity on site, and water had to be brought from Dodge's store in the center of New Boston. Nail kegs were used as chairs. Locals felt so sorry for the soldiers that they donated used furniture.

During World War II, local residents remember watching fighters and bombers train at the Air Force station and learned to recognize the sounds of strafing and bombing as they went about their tasks.

"I'd watch from the kitchen window," 89-year-old Evelyn Barss told the Nashua Telegraph newspaper in a 2005 story. "They would come in across the hill and drop their bombs and we would see them. These little black specks would go down, and you would hear a small discharge - they didn't use a lot of powder because it was scarce during the war."

New Boston from above in 2014

Roland Goodwin worked at the base on and off for three decades and he remembers seeing the tail fins of bombs sticking out of the pond. Planes at one time practiced dropping depth bombs for sinking submarines.

"Every building we built down there in the early days ... we usually ran into a buried bomb of some kind. We'd have to bring people up from Fort Devens to detonate it." Ordnance has been detonated as late as 2010. [5]

After the war, the station took a lower profile. The bombing range was deactivated and after a long debate about the site's future, it became home to new satellite tracking antennas. The first antennas went up around 1960 and remain, protected by a geodesic dome resembling a golf ball about six stories high.

In previous years portions of the station have been open to fisherman, hunters, and loggers, but the station has been closed to most non-military personnel since the attacks of September 11.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s it was known as Detachment 1 of the 2014th Communications Squadron located at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts.

In July 2021 the facility was renamed from New Boston Air Force Station to New Boston Space Force Station.[6]

Based units

Notable units based at New Boston Air Force Station.[7]

United States Space Force

Space Operations Command (SpOC)

23 SOPS is a Geographically Separate Unit, which although based at New Boston SFS, is subordinate to the Space Delta 6 based at Schriever AFB in Colorado.

Geography

The new installation sign during its redesignation ceremony

A few working farms are in the vicinity; however, most of the area is heavily wooded with pockets of residential development. Commercial development consists primarily of small shopping centers with a few office complexes along NH State Route 101 to the southeast.

New Boston SFS consists mostly of undeveloped, forested land with extensive wetlands. Local, state, and federal laws governing the preservation of natural, cultural, and environmental resources play a major role in limiting development on and around the station.

The station lies within the Merrimack River watershed. Fourteen freshwater ponds fed by springs or streams, which occupy approximately 100 acres (405,000 m²), and seven miles (11 km) of streams exist on the station. The ponds are bordered by wetlands, and the streams by riparian vegetation. Riffle and pool habitats are favorable for many cold water fish species. Wetland types include freshwater emergent marshes of variable depths, wet meadows, shrub and deciduous wooded swamps such as red maple and black gum swamps, and a red spruce bog. This bog contains a deep peat layer.

Of all the water bodies on the station, only Joe English Pond appears on the list of protected water bodies under the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Comprehensive Shoreline Protection Act (CSPA).

References

  1. ^ Granite Geek: "Space Force comes to a New Hampshire town"
  2. ^ New Boston Historical Society: "The Bombing of Joe English Pond"
  3. ^ FOX21 goes inside the New Boston Air Force Station
  4. ^ Epstein, Jeff (May 30, 2020). "Lift-off! NH Air Force workers will be at their posts for historic SpaceX launch | Manchester Ink Link". manchesterinklink.com. Retrieved 2021-02-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ U.S. Air Force: "2000 pound bomb detonated at New Boston" 20 October 2010
  6. ^ https://twitter.com/schrieverafb/status/1414695764933103619?s=21
  7. ^ "Units". Schriever AFB. US Space Force. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=New_Boston_Space_Force_Station&oldid=1036398303"