Failure is Not an Option Traditional Geocache

An easy cache with a memorial focus. This cache is placed with the explicit permission of the facility manager and the staff is fully aware of its location (several staff members are also geocachers). Please return the cache to the exact place it was found. Be sure to clamp down all 3 latches of the waterproof container.

While you're here, please remember the 17 astronauts that NASA has lost on space missions over the years.

On January 27, 1967 the crew of Apollo/Saturn 204 (later named Apollo 1) died when a fire started inside their capsule during a pre-launch test at the Kennedy Space Center. Astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee were the first casualties of the "Space Race".

The building adjacent to this cache is named for the Space Shuttle Challenger that was lost 73 seconds after lift off on January 28, 1986 from Kenney Space Center on mission STS-51-L. The crew consisted of astronauts Francis "Dick" Scobee, Ron McNair, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Greg Jarvis and the first teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe. They all died when the solid rocket boosters failed, causing the shuttle's external fuel tank to explode.

Most recently, Space Shuttle Columbia was lost on February 1, 2003 at the end of mission STS-107 while flying high over Texas heading for a Florida touch down. Astronauts Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon were all lost when the shuttle broke apart during re-entry into the atmosphere. The cause was a failure of the heat shielding tiles on the left wing which had been damaged by an impact during liftoff on January 16 by a large block of insulating foam that broke off the external fuel tank. The Space Shuttle Columbia was also the first shuttle to fly into space on April 12, 1981 as mission STS-1.

There is a small memorial area at the nearby Challenger Learning Center that is dedicated to the 7 crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger. So while you're here to log this cache, walk over to reflect on these heroes who risked it all and paid the ultimate sacrifice in the name of science, exploration, and human advancement. Note that without the advancements in space exploration by these brave men and women of NASA, this game of Geocaching that we all enjoy so much would not exist.

Godspeed.

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