The Real 'Spaceport America'

Florida is where the nation goes to launch

On May 29, 1947, “a runaway German V-2 rocket fired from the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico crashed and exploded on top of a rocky knoll three and a half miles south of the Juarez business district.” The impact crater was “50 feet wide by 30 feet deep,” and while “no one was injured, the U.S. government … had to settle damage claims, many of w…