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[CC] Challenger Mystery Cache

This cache has been archived.

Cold Cache Crew: It's time to bring another year of the Cold Cache series to a close. The snow is finally gone (despite the Groundhog assuring us it would have been sooner) and this cache series is complete.

Remember: If you found all caches in the 2013 series [i]except[/i] "Queen Elizabeth", contact Bumble and he will grant permission to log that as a bonus find (so you can complete the series).

Bumble would like to thank the 2013 Cold Cache Crew members (bretina, MI Barrel Makers, TJPost, Addham, N8theGR811, and spartanalum) for all of their work on this series.

So long, farewell, until next year ...

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Hidden : 12/7/2012
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:


January 28 - Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986


The challenge with this cache is which of the four probable spots is it located. You will find it by going to the posted coords and dirty cache this within the proximity of the four obvious corners.


The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38am. Disintegration of the entire vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment hardware and external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRBs aft attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter.

The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation.

The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by United States President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors to the accident. NASA managers had known contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but failed to address it properly. They also disregarded warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching posed by the low temperatures of that morning and had failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors.

Many viewed the launch live because of the presence of crew member Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project and the (planned) first female teacher in space. Media coverage of the accident was extensive: one study reported that 85 percent of Americans surveyed had heard the news within an hour of the accident. The Challenger disaster has been used as a case study in many discussions of engineering safety and workplace ethics.


The theme for the 2013 Cold Cache series involves events in history that took place between January 1 and March 31 (which is the same timeframe that the Cold Cache series will be available).

Abraham Lincoln Public Museum Elvis Boy Scouts
Town Lights Underground Railroad John Glenn Girl Scouts
Daylight Savings Uranus Washington Monument First Movie
Super Bowl Navy Cotton Gin Queen Elizabeth I
Postage Stamps Panama Canal Nautilus Color TV
Oil Spill King Kong Challenger New Amsterdam
King Tut Bell Telephone Gold Rush Apollo 1
13th Amendment Iwo Jima 911 System Alcatraz
B&O Railroad MLK Ellis Island Alamo


Additional Hints (Decrypt)

nzzb pna

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)