International Space Station Travel Bug II by the 5th Grade Class of Chase Elementary School-Waterbury, CT travel bug®, TB5JJN1, is taking geocaching back to space when it hitches a ride to the International Space Station with astronaut Rick Mastracchio. Per Geocaching.com’s blog, he plans to "use the travel bug as a tool to teach students on Earth, in his home state of Connecticut, about geography and science. He’ll also earn the Solar System’s most elusive smiley and find the International Space Station geocache" (http://coord.info/GC1BE91).
Launch from Kazakhstan is currently scheduled for 4:08 GMT on November 7, which is 10:08 PM, November 6 here in the Central Time Zone and is supposed to be available to watch live online.
Geocaching HQ will award every geocacher who attends a geocaching event on November 6 or 7, 2013 a “Geocaching in Space” souvenir to celebrate the geocaching community’s spirit of exploration.
An interactive event map is located at http://blog.geocaching.com/2013/10/geocaching-in-space-the-interactive-event-map/.
The travel bug can be followed at its page http://coord.info/TB5JJN1 or at Rick Mastracchio’s twitter page @astroRM or on his Facebook page per the geocaching forum thread at http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=315722.
Come get together to celebrate this rare geocaching event. Eat if you would like, swap some stories and/or caching tips. If you have any trackables which need to move on, bring those, too.
There is an area reserved for us. Event is open to anyone who would like to attend—cachers, muggles, and enablers.