To quote Captain Kirk: Space, the final frontier… to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Geocachers, like the crew of the starship Enterprise, are drawn to exploration and discovery. So naturally, geocachers around the world have started to look towards space.
Here is a history of geocaching in space up to this point:
- The first geocache in space was placed by Richard Garriott (Username: Lord British) in 2008.
- The first geocaching First-to-Find (FTF) in space goes to American astronaut Rick Mastracchio (AstroRM). His FTF log, recorded November 17, 2013, reads:
The geo space bug (TB5JJN1) has made it to the Russian Service Module, panel 218. He traveled from Waterbury, CT to Houston, TX to Cologne, Germany to Moscow, Star City Russia, to Baikonur Kazakhstan where it launched on a Russian Soyuz Rocket to the International Space Station. He has traveled around the space station and will continue to do so for the next 6 months. When he is not traveling he will be staying with me in my very small crew quarters. He hangs/floats on my wall and waits for more adventures while I do research and perform experiments here on ISS. Thanks for getting this little guy started Cizzors. Every journey starts with the first step and you took the first step of this one. Rick.
- Geocachers on Planet Earth celebrated the first FTF in space with 1,100 events held around the world.
- Astronaut Rick Mastracchio carried this Geocaching Travel Bug® with 11 hitchhiker tags to space on behalf of 11 elementary schools in Waterbury, Connecticut. Over 4,000 logs were added to the Travel Bug’s page with questions about space and well wishes from geocachers around the world.
Read this interview with Astronaut Rick Mastracchio to learn more about what it's like to be in space. Find other geocaches in space here.
