Mercury 4
One of 27 caches representing all United States Spaceflight Missions of Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. This was the 2nd of 6 Mercury flights and the 2nd of the 27 flights. Click here to see all 27 US Spaceflight caches.
The Mercury 4 spaceflight, more commonly known as Mercury-Redstone 4, or Liberty Bell 7, was the second United States human spaceflight, on July 21, 1961, piloted by astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom. It was the second crewed flight of Project Mercury, the objective of which was to put an astronaut into orbit around the Earth and return him safely. Grissom's mission was a 15-minute suborbital flight with the primary objective of demonstrating his ability to withstand the high g-forces of launch and atmospheric re-entry.
The spaceflight lasted 15 minutes 37 seconds, it reached an altitude of more than 102.7 nautical miles (190.3 km), and it flew 262.5 nautical miles (486.2 km) downrange, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The flight went as expected until just after splashdown, when the hatch cover, designed to release explosively in the event of an emergency, accidentally blew. Grissom was at risk of drowning, but he was recovered safely via a U.S. Navy helicopter. The spacecraft sank into the Atlantic, and it was not recovered until 1999.
Mercury 4 Patch & Virgil "Gus" Grissom
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:_ |
_Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom |
| Launch Vehicle:_ |
_Mercury-Redstone |
| Height:_ |
_83.38 feet |
| Diameter:_ |
_5.83 feet |
| Stages:_ |
_1 |
| Thrust:_ |
_78,000 lbf |
| Launch Date & Time:_ |
_July 21, 1961, 12:20:36 UTC |
| Landing Date & Time:_ |
_ July 21, 1961, 12:36:13 UTC |
| Duration:_ |
_15 minutes, 37 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.
BONUS:
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 Redstone 4.
Click here to see the Wikipedia description for Project Mercury.
Click here to see the Wikipedia description for the Space Race.