El Arenosillo

El Arenosillo is a proving ground and research center founded in 1942 in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (short INTA ), ( German: National Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ). Its official name is Centro de experimentacion de El Arenosillo (short CEDEA ) and is located 2 kilometers south-east of Mazagon ( Huelva, Spain) on the Atlantic coast, with around 300 days of sunshine a year provides the best weather conditions in Spain.

El Arenosillo was also known as the launch site for sounding rockets of the Spanish Space Agency in Madrid. The first rocket launch from El Arenosillo took place on 14 October 1966 Until 1994 El Arenosillo 557 missiles -. Mainly of type Skua, Loki - Dart, Nike -Cajun, started INTA INTA 255 and 300.

Use

In addition to research the terrain in El Arenosillo also serves as the testing for certification of materials, components and systems for aviation and space technology. INTA where he runs next to a self-sufficient infrastructure is also a center for laboratory and weather balloons, weather center with information in real time reception of satellite data and extensive research of the ionosphere by means of ionosonde.

The grounds of the CEDEA has been used in recent years the most important testing ground not only for the Spanish Ministry of Defense, but is also used by the military testing departments from Germany, the Netherlands, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency Agenzia Spaziale Italiana.

In 2008 was successfully carried out on the premises of CEDEA the necessary examinations for the certification of Eurocopter for the HAD Tiger using the Spike missile.

Trivia

Due to the military use is the terrain in publicly accessible satellite maps such as Google Maps, shown only to be covered.

Swell

• Centro de experimentacion de El Arenosillo (Spanish, PDF file, 71 kB)