Yuri's Night | The World Space Party – Connecting people with each other, their dreams and spaceship earth.

Yuri’s Night, the World Space Party, has announced its slogan for the 2012 event.

“Yuri’s Night 2012: Make an Impact” calls on event organizers and attendees around the world to both remember the impact of space travel on human society and make their own impact locally through their Yuri’s Night event. The slogan also slyly hints at the hype surrounding 2012 as the year of the supposed Mayan end-of-the-world prophesies.

“With this slogan, we call on all Yuri’s Night parties to ‘make an impact,’ whether it be through educating attendees about space, helping to train a new generation of organizers and leaders, or simply celebrating the importance of space exploration in their local communities,” said Ryan Kobrick, Yuri’s Night Executive Director. “As we look to host 1,000 Yuri’s Night events next year, we are extremely excited to see artists, scientists, students, and space enthusiasts around the world join us in promoting humanity’s future in space.”

The Yuri’s Night Global Team officially kicked off the planning for Yuri’s Night 2012 last May, and has continued to plan throughout the summer for the world’s largest celebration of space next April.

About Yuri’s Night

Yuri’s Night is a global non-profit organization dedicated to hosting global celebrations of humanity’s presence in space each April 12 in commemoration of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight and the inaugural launch of the Space Shuttle. Currently in its 12th year of operation, Yuri’s Night hosted over 120 parties in 35 countries in 2011, including events in Tokyo, San Francisco, the NASA Ames Research Center, and the International Space Station.

For more information about Yuri’s Night, visit www.yurisnight.net.

On the heels of our announcement that Ron Garan has been honored with the 2011 Spirit of Yuri’s Night Award, we’re pleased to find out that Yuri’s Night itself has been named the winner of the Space Frontier Foundation’s Presentation of Space Award.

The Presentation of Space Award is given each year “for outstanding achievement in highlighting past and present events in space exploration and development. This award is for excellence in non-fiction efforts, such as documentaries and other projects to inform and enlighten the public“, with Yuri’s Night partners Orphans of Apollo and Spacevidcast among the prior recipients.

The Presentation of Space Award will be officially presented at the NewSpace Awards Gala during the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2011 Conference on the evening of July 30. Yuri’s Night Assistant Director Brice Russ and other YN notables will be on hand to accept the award.

Yuri’s Night would like to thank the Space Frontier Foundation for their recognition of our efforts to educate the public about humanity’s history in space and inspire a new generation of space leaders, advocates, and enthusiasts.