Mercury 9
One of 27 caches representing all United States Spaceflight Missions of Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. This was the 6th of 6 Mercury flights and the 6th of the 27 flights. Click here to see all 27 US Spaceflight caches.
The Mercury 9 spaceflight, more commonly known as Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9), or Faith 7, was the sixth United States human spaceflight, on May 15, 1963, piloted by astronaut L. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. It was the sixth and last crewed flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely.
The Mercury spacecraft was carried to orbit by an Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifting off from Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It completed 22 Earth orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. This mission marks the last time an American was launched alone to conduct an entirely solo orbital mission.
Mercury 9 Patch & L. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr.
WHY HERE?
The center point of all the US Spaceflight caches is located in the middle of the intersection where John Glenn Drive changes into Galaxy Way in Concord, CA.
Or as we geocachers would specify it: N 37° 58.700 W 122° 03.259
The distance ranges from this point to the various caches representing the spaceflighst are:
- about ¼ mile - Mercury sub-orbital missions
- about 2 miles - Mercury orbital missions
- about 5 miles - Gemini missions
- about 5 miles - Apollo Earth orbital missions
- about 25 miles - Apollo moon missions
FLIGHT SUMMARY:
| Crew:_ |
_L. Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, Jr. - Pilot |
| Launch Vehicle:_ |
_Atlas LV-3B |
| Height:_ |
_94.3 feet |
| Stages:_ |
_2 (counting boost fairing) |
| Stage 1 Diameter:_ |
_16.0 feet with boost faring |
| Stage 1 Thrust:_ |
_341,130 lbf |
| Stage 2 Diameter:_ |
_10.0 feet |
| Stage 2 Thrust:_ |
_81,655 lbf |
| Launch Date & Time:_ |
_May 15, 1963, 13:04:13 UTC |
| Landing Date & Time:_ |
_May 16, 1963, 23:24:02 UTC |
| Duration:_ |
_34 hours, 19 minutes, 49 seconds |
FTF Prize:
This is 1 of 27 caches in KCSearcher's US Spaceflight series that were given away as FTF prizes at his “Man on the Moon, July 20, 1969 - 50 years later” event. For those attendees that received this as a prize, they had an 88 hour head start on those that didn’t attend the event. The prize winners were instructed to sign the log in the “Pre-Publication FTFer(s)” space.
However, for the FTF Hounds that were not able to attend, they too had the opportunity to be FTF on this cache after publication that was targeted for 7/24/2019 @ or around 9:50 AM Pacific Time (splashdown of Apollo 11 + 50 years). All they had to do is find the cache and be first to sign in the “Post-Publication FTFer(s)” space on the log.
Don’t forget to record and save the Code Letter and its associated Number that is on the log sheet and inside the container lid. It will be needed to find a bonus cache on the 51st anniversary of the Moon Landing, July 20, 2020.
Please DO NOT post or include an image of the Code Letter and Number in any of your online logs for this cache
TO LEARN MORE:
Click here to see the Wikipedia description for Mercury-Atlas 9 (MA-9).
Click here to see the Wikipedia description for Project Mercury.
Click here to see the Wikipedia description for the Space Race.