This aerial photo of JPL's Edwards Test Station (ETS) was taken in May 1959. The station was built by JPL in 1945 to test Corporal guided missile motors, away from the increasingly populated residential areas around the Arroyo Seco.

ETS was located at Muroc Flight Test Center (now known as Edwards Air Force Base) in the Mojave desert, about 100 miles northeast of JPL. At the time this photo was taken there were three test stands, with a new one under construction, propellant storage docks, office space, a dark room, sleeping quarters, various storage buildings, and a permanent JPL staff of 41. In later decades, the facility was also used to test the propulsion systems of nearly all U.S. unmanned lunar and planetary spacecraft. ETS was closed in 1995.

In October 1999, the Historical Photo of the Month will feature a close up of one of the test stands, with a "Short Snorter" motor test underway.