[1]: 1 The history of the Eastern Range began on 18 October 1940, with the activation of the Banana River Naval Air Station which supported antisubmarine sea-patrol planes during World War II.

[1]: 5 [4] Launches of captured German V-2 rockets had been ongoing since the end of World War II at White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico, but it became clear that a much longer range away from heavily populated areas would be needed.

On 11 May 1949, President Truman signed Public Law 60 which established the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Base.

[4][7] On 1 October 1979, control of the range passed to the newly activated Eastern Space and Missile Center (ESMC).

[10] In February 2017, SpaceX's CRS-10 launch was the "first operational use"[11] of the Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS) on "either of Air Force Space Command's Eastern or Western Ranges".

[13] For all future SpaceX launches, AFSS has replaced "the ground-based mission flight control personnel and equipment with on-board Positioning, Navigation and Timing sources and decision logic.

By September 1963, the Eastern Range extended around the tip of South Africa to the island of Mahé, Seychelles in the Indian Ocean".

The system was developed by American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), with its Bell Laboratories research and Western Electric manufacturing elements and was to an extent based on the company's technology and experience developing and deploying the U.S. Navy's then classified Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS).

[25] As recently as July 2007, NASA spacecraft such as Dawn have depended upon the availability of airborne and sea-based tracking assets associated with the East Range to monitor launch and ascent.