GC5M0RQ MUOS-3
Type: Mystery | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Deadmoney @ | Hide Date: 02/07/2015 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 58.889 W104° 38.373 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
                 

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Satellite Communications has been my life since enlisting in the Air Force right after high school in June 1991. This cache is dedicated to our recent launch of MUOS-3.  MUOS will dramatically increase our comms capability for our warfighters across the world and just thought it needed it's own geocache.  This cache is indeed at the posted coordinates....you'll just need to figure out the 4-digit lock from the paragraphs below.

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A massive U.S. Navy military satellite designed to improve communications and data between troops in remote regions lifted-off on Tuesday from America's Space Coast on a planned decade long mission in geostationary orbit.

The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) spacecraft is the third in a fleet of five planned satellites designed to replace aging military communications satellites. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command's MUOS-3 system is expected to expand the military network by ten times the number of users than that of the existing SATCOM system, including voice, video and data.

"Five are planned, four operational and one on-orbit spare," stated Naval Commander Pete Sheehy minutes after launch. CDR Sheehy added MUOS-4 will launch this August, and the fleet of four satellites will be operational tested late this year. He likened MUOS as moving multiple cellular towers on the ground and placing them in geostationary orbit.

As the countdown entered a planned hold at 4 minutes, high upper levels winds and "command interference" with the Atlas V rocket delayed lift-off by 21 minutes. The interference left the range with the inability to send necessary destruct commands to the vehicle if an emergency occurred. As the two issues cleared and the clock neared zero, the Atlas' RD-180 main engine ignited seconds before its five boosters.

The bronze and white Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday at 8:04 p.m. EST, with its heaviest payload to date. The Atlas V 551, powered by a core main engine and five strap on solid fuel boosters, leapt from the launch pad with 2.6 million pounds of thrust to carry its 7.4 ton payload.  CDR Sheehy went on to say that the exact military time that MUOS-3 launched is the key to success.

As the rocket rose up and began to dart out over the Atlantic waters, night briefly turned to daylight as Atlas rode a 400-foot golden flame. Nearly two minutes later, the empty boosters were jettisoned two at a time while the lone main engine continued to burn.

Tuesday's launch occurred during President Obama's State of the Union address in which he promoted the successful use of military operations to stop terrorism foes in the Middle East. MUOS-3 successfully deployed from the Centuar upper stage on time at 10:57 p.m., and into its planned orbit over an area northwest of Australia. The spacecraft will undergo several months of thruster firings to place MUOS in its proper orbit, and on orbit check outs.

CDR Sheehy and the entire MUOS team would like to congratulate THeSKuLL for a well-deserved First to Find.

12/21/2017 By jasperdakota
Met with Shelleah to get the Deadmoney Cache. We couldn't find this one.

08/13/2016 By hiking_fool
Thank goodness for smartphones - forgot the solution, but had it saved in memory. With that in hand we were able to claim a smiley. SL TFTC!

08/13/2016 By DustyKat
Caching with hiking fool and we solved and located this cache. TFTC

08/12/2016 By RPieperCO
Thanks for the cache! I've been meaning to come out this way to pick up a puzzle cache I placed here for an event back in May. Taken a long time to get back here! So I hiked out to this one and was bummed what I thought was the solution was not. But with the hint and some patience I was able to gain access the hard way. Signed the log and locked back up. All is dry and in good shape here.

05/27/2016 By KJKlock
The Army gave me off from work for a long 4-day weekend because of Memorial Day. This is my first day off with no specific plans in a very long time. I thought I might begin systematically clearing out all the unfound caches within 10 miles of our house. But the weather is not great today for a big day of caching. I found a total of 3 caches today; at least they were all within my 10 mile radius from home.

I solved this puzzle when the cache was first published, but since it is close to my house, I was saving it for a rainy day. Today, I decided to just go find it and not save it any longer. Awesome cache. I drove my Jeep to within 100 feet of it, which was fun to do. I also took the micro geocoin to move it along. Favorite point for an easy space-related puzzle and a cool idea for a container.

This is day 1050 of our current daily caching streak. Thanks for helping us to extend it by another day.

TFTC!