Geocaching HQ Announces Historic Expansion of Search

Geocaching is all about having fun. So naturally, we love April Fools.

Last Friday, April 1st, we introduced a new feature called Galaxy Search, a tool to start planning your greatest geocaching adventure yet — in space. (Boy, do we wish this feature were real…maybe one day!)

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Our favorite astronaut Rick Mastracchio even played along by “hiding” his first-ever geocache, also in space.

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In addition to Astronaut Mastracchio’s geocache, 65 other geocaches were “hidden” in space, forming some stellar geo-art.

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[April 4,2016] Note: All ‘Found It’ logs on the space geocaches are now notes and associated souvenirs will be removed. The caches were archived, but you can still view them on this Bookmark List.

Introducing Galaxy Search

Buoyed by the knowledge that someone has found every geocache on Earth, Geocaching HQ has taken the next logical step to keep pace with the game’s growth. With today’s website release and introduction of Galaxy Search, players can now search for geocaches in space.

This historic development is nearly eight years in the making. The HQ team first began investigating the possibility of an all-encompassing Search tool when Richard Garriott (Username: LordBritish) placed his International Space Station geocache in 2008. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio (Username: AstroRM) was FTF on that cache in 2013. Shortly thereafter, Mastracchio informed Geocaching HQ of his desire to place another space cache during his time in orbit. At that point, it became clear that work on Galaxy Search must begin immediately.

Upon completing and implementing Galaxy Search, our developers made a stunning discovery. Search results yielded not only the International Space Station geocache and Astronaut Mastracchio’s new geocache, but also a previously unknown geo-art collection of more than 60 cache listings! These amazing geocaches were placed by such luminaries as James T. Kirk, Luke Skywalker, Ziggy Stardust and others.

We’re thrilled to now share these far-out geocaches with the community. Simply visit the Geocaching.com Search and check out the latest featured search.

Alternatively, players can download the public Bookmark List of space geocaches. With the recent addition of Offline Lists to the Geocaching® app, players can easily save these new caches to mobile devices, making it easier than ever to go geocaching in space!

Hopelessly addicted cacher and Geocaching HQ's public relations manager.