The instruments used by the LINEAR program are located at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site (ETS) on the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) near Socorro, New Mexico.

In June 1598, Juan de Oñate led a group of Spanish settlers through the Jornada del Muerto, an inhospitable patch of desert that ends just south of the present-day city of Socorro.

As the Spaniards emerged from the desert, Piro Indians of the pueblo of Teypana gave them food and water.

[7] Nuestra Señora de Perpetuo Socorro, the first Catholic mission in the area, was probably established c. 1626.

Other than El Paso, there were no Spanish settlements south of Sabinal (which is approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of Socorro) until the 1800s.

[11] In 1800, governor Fernando Chacón gave the order to resettle Socorro and other villages in the area.

A British officer, Lt. George Ruxton, commented that these soldiers were "unwashed and unshaven, were ragged and dirty, without uniforms..." and were lacking in discipline.

[17] The first military post built near Socorro was Fort Conrad, 30 miles (48 km) south of the town.

[18][19] The New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad (a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe) arrived in July 1880, as it built south through the Rio Grande valley on its way toward El Paso.

On April 24, 1964, Lonnie Zamora, a local policeman, claimed to have observed a flying saucer and two little beings.

The immediate region encompasses approximately 6,000 feet (1,800 m) of vertical relief between the Rio Grande and the Magdalena Mountains.

The Elfego Baca Golf Shoot is named after a former mayor of Socorro who survived a gun battle near what is now Reserve, New Mexico, involving over 4,000 bullets that were fired over the course of 36 hours.

The town is the location of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, which is a state-funded research- and teaching-oriented university.

Freight service is provided by a BNSF line from Belen, New Mexico to El Paso, Texas.

Passenger service ceased in 1968, when ATSF (BNSF’s predecessor) cancelled its El Pasoan train.

Actress Jodie Foster stayed in Socorro while filming the movie Contact (1997) at the Very Large Array fifty miles west of the city.

During this time, most of the production crew and actors on the film (made with the working title Horse Soldiers) stayed at hotels in Socorro and ate at local restaurants.

Chris Hemsworth was spotted at the Socorro Springs restaurant and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology's gym.