Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It was incorporated as a city in 1963. The population was 27,959 at the 2020 census, up slightly from 27,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city in Kern County.
Pacific Missile Test Center (PMTC) is the former name of the current Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division. The name of the center was the Naval Air Missile Test Center prior to PMTC. It is located at Naval Base Ventura County/Naval Air Station Point Mugu in Ventura County, California. The nearest city to the installation is Oxnard.
The Coso Volcanic Field is located in Inyo County, California, at the western edge of the Basin and Range geologic province and northern region of the Mojave Desert. The Fossil Falls are part of the Coso Field, created by the prehistoric Owens River. They are within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and northeast of Little Lake and U.S. Route 395.
The Coso Range of eastern California is located immediately south of Owens Lake, east of the Sierra Nevada, and west of the Argus Range. The southern part of the range lies in the restricted Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake and the northern part of the range is designated as the Coso Range Wilderness. The mountains include Coso Peak, at 8,160 feet (2,487 m) above sea level, as well as Silver Peak and Silver Mountain, both more than 7,400 ft (2,300 m) in height.
Coso Hot Springs is a hot spring complex in the Coso Volcanic Field in the Mojave Desert of Inyo County, California. The Springs are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Morris Reservoir is located in the San Gabriel Mountains, within the Angeles National Forest, in Los Angeles County, California.
Coso Rock Art District is a rock art site containing over 100,000 Petroglyphs by Paleo-Indians and/or Native Americans. The district is located near the towns of China Lake and Ridgecrest, California. Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964. In 2001, they were incorporated into this larger National Historic Landmark District. There are several other distinct canyons in the Coso Rock Art District besides the Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons. Also known as Little Petroglyph Canyon and Sand Tanks, Renegade Canyon is but one of several major canyons in the Coso Range, each hosting thousands of petroglyphs. The majority of the Coso Range images fall into one of six categories: bighorn sheep, entopic images, anthropomorphic or human-like figures, other animals, weapons & tools, and "medicine bag" images. Scholars have proposed a few potential interpretations of this rock art. The most prevalent of these interpretations is that they could have been used for rituals associated with hunting.
Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons are two principal landforms within which are found major accumulations of Paleo-Indian and/or Native American Petroglyphs, or rock art, by the Coso People located in the Coso Range Mountains of the northern Mojave Desert, and now within the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, near the towns of China Lake and Ridgecrest, California. Little Petroglyph Canyon contains 20,000 documented images, which surpasses in number for most other collections. Additionally, the archeological resources are remarkably undisturbed.
The Tiny Tim was an American air-to-ground rocket used near the end of the Second World War.
William Burdette McLean (1914–1976) was a United States Navy physicist, who conceived and developed the heat-seeking Sidewinder missile. The Sidewinder was the first truly effective air-to-air missile; its variants and upgrades are still in active service.
The NOTS-EV-1 Pilot, better known as NOTSNIK was an expendable launch system and anti-satellite weapon developed by the United States Navy's United States Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS). NOTSNIK began as an in-house project using available NOTS funds. The Advanced Research Projects Agency later supplied some funds for the program. The program involved creating transistorized sensors to detect nuclear explosions from the Operation Argus tests. Ten were launched during July and August 1958, all of which failed. It was the first air-launched rocket to be used for an orbital launch attempt; however, none was recorded as having reached orbit. Following the third orbital launch attempt a NOTS engineer at the tracking station in Christchurch, New Zealand reported receiving a weak signal from the spacecraft; This was never confirmed, and the launches were not catalogued as having reached orbit. The Pilot rocket was part of Project Pilot.
Indian Wells Valley is an arid north–south basin in east-central California. In the geologic sense, it is a southern extension of Owens Valley to the north, with the recent volcanics of the Coso Range being the separator. It is defined by a major fault on the west side of the valley. Unlike Owens Valley, it is bound by a fault to the south, the Garlock Fault. The valley is part of California's South Lahontan hydrologic region.
Maturango Museum is located in Ridgecrest, California. The museum is best known for the guided tours of the Coso Rock Art District located on China Lake Naval Weapons Station. The museum offers exhibits and displays featuring both the natural and the cultural history and diversity of the Northern Mojave Desert with exhibits of animals, plants, rocks and minerals, Native American artifacts, and contemporary arts and crafts.
The Hopi was an air-to-surface missile developed by the United States Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station. Intended to provide a medium-range nuclear capability for carrier aircraft, the missile reached the flight test stage during 1958, but the project was cancelled following testing and no production was undertaken.
The Bombardment Aircraft Rocket, also known as BOAR, the Bureau of Ordnance Aircraft Rocket, and officially as the 30.5-Inch Rocket, Mark 1, Mod 0, was an unguided air-to-surface rocket developed by the United States Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station during the 1950s. Intended to provide a standoff nuclear capability for carrier-based aircraft, the rocket entered operational service in 1956, remaining in service until 1963.
The Diamondback was a proposed nuclear-armed air-to-air missile studied by the United States Navy's Naval Ordnance Test Station during the 1950s. Intended as an enlarged, nuclear-armed version of the successful Sidewinder missile, Diamondback did not progress beyond the study stage.
Rear Admiral Sherman E. Burroughs, Jr. was a senior officer in the United States Navy, and the first commander of the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake originally known as the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS).
The AAM-N-5 Meteor was an early American air-to-air missile, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Bell Aircraft for the United States Navy. Initially, both air-launched and ship-launched versions were considered. Versions designed for launch from carrier-based aircraft proceeded to the flight testing stage before the project was cancelled.
Project Camel encompassed the work performed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in support of the Manhattan Project during World War II. These activities included the development of detonators and other equipment, testing of bomb shapes dropped from Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers, and the Salt Wells Pilot Plant, where explosive components of nuclear weapons were manufactured.
