Muchea Tracking Station
The Wheatbelt has an important place in history supporting early human spaceflight. John Glenn Park is named after the American astronaut, the first American to orbit Earth. Muchea played a crucial role by contacting him aboard Friendship 7 on his first pass over the WA coast.
The Muchea Tracking Station opened in March 1961 and was first built specifically for NASAs first human spaceflight program, Project Mercury. The site at Muchea was chosen for the manned space flight program because of its location under the flight path.
The Muchea Tracking Station had a VERLORT S band radar capable of tracking objects 4,000 km away and was the only place outside the US able to send commands to the spacecraft.
John Glenn Park has a series of fascinating information boards depicting the story of the Wheatbelt’s past and current role in space exploration and the characters behind it.
This site is part of the Wheatbelt Science Trail and GeoTrail, you can find more information or other sites of interest across the region on the map.
The Cache:
The cache is not at the posted coordinates.
To find the cache head to Stage one in the listed waypoints, there you will find signage boards where you can find out the information to the following clues, these will then lead you to find the coordinates of the cache.
The Cache is located at S 31° 3A.BCD E 115° 5E.FGH
A = The number of sides of the shape formed by the inner legs of the signs (imagine drawing a straight line from inner leg to the next inner leg and so on)
B = The missing digit of the following date '18 July 192_' which is found on the Board titled 'John Glen, Space Pioneer'
C = The missing digit in the following sentence 'Her husband died in 19_2' which is on the board thats all about Ginger
D = The number of the Mecury team welcomed at the station before it closed, this information is found on the board titled 'Local Passion'
E = The missing digit in the following sentence 'Synthetic Rutile, _0,000 tonnes' which is located on the board titled 'Thankyou to our sponsers'
F = The missing digit in the following '_15km northeast of Geraldton.' which is located on the board titled 'The Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory'
G = the missing digit in the following '94.6_2 metres Above Mean Sea Level' which is located on the board titled 'First Australian To Speak With An Astronaut'
H = The diameter of the SCR-584 dish (rounded to a whole digit) found ont he board titled 'Muchea Tracking Station'
NOTES:
When you arrive you can park alongside the cache, to open it make sure you pull down on it first, then lift it up to expose the logbook.
When you have finished make sure you pull it back down as far as it will go to reset the catches, this way someone won't accidently open it if they lift it up.
Please make sure no-one is watching you open it. This should be easy enough especially if you park your car to shield your activities
The posted coordinates were originally chosen to show you the original location of the Muchea Tracking Station, this has changed and the original location is listed in the waypoints section as a reference point.