Parties will be approved and added to the map starting later this evening; we’ll have the party list and some other minor fixes up soon after. Remember, registration is free, so make sure to sign up your party today! Help us Rock The Planet as we make 2012 the biggest year for Yuri’s Night yet!

So, just what does the Director of Awesome do?
Carolyn: The Director of Awesome does a little bit of everything – agendas and minutes for our telecons (record keeping!), tracking tasks that Global Executive Team members are working on, drafting Memoranda of Understanding with fellow space-focused organizations, and various other tasks that come up and can use another hand. And, of course, keeping the team aware of how awesome they are!

How did you first hear about and get involved in Yuri’s Night?
I first heard about Yuri’s Night during a meeting with co-founder Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides while I was an intern at NASA Ames Research Center. Instead of the standard lecture, Loretta put my small group of interns through a pseudo-workshop that helped us think about our passions and goals for the future. When she started talking about how and why she formed Yuri’s Night, I knew I wanted to be involved in the effort.

What do you do when you’re not helping to “rock the planet” with the Global Team?
Though helping to “rock the planet” is one of my favorite uses of time, my day job is with a non-profit that tries to get kids excited about science – meaning I basically get to play with kids and science toys all day. Big fan of the fire tornado demo. I also try to overload friends and neighbors with baked goods (healthy!) and dinner parties, and take advantage of the beautiful Colorado outdoors.

What’s your favorite thing about working with Yuri’s Night?
My favorite thing about working with Yuri’s Night is the group of amazing people I get to work with, and seeing how passionate they are about popularizing space. We all come from different backgrounds, and live different daily lives, but we have this common boundless enthusiasm for the accomplishments and potential for human spaceflight.

Growing up, I was rarely around people who made human accomplishments in space seem important, and so working with other “space geeks” is really enjoyable. Everyone on the Global Team has such a great background and set of goals!

Thanks for doing your part to help Yuri’s Night “make an impact” in 2012, Carolyn!

Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour is an hour-long, in-depth exploration of scientific topics ranging from climate change to nanotech. Dr. Kiki’s Science Hour is hosted on TWiT, an online network of netcasts and podcasts hosted by tech and science leaders such as Leo Laporte and Gina Trapani.

You can watch Ryan starting at 7 PM online at http://live.twit.tv.

As you may have noticed, we’re still in the process of updating the Yuri’s Night webpage for 2012.

We’ve run into some issues with our server while integrating the new Yuri’s Night website design, and we’ve run a bit behind schedule as we attempt to sort those out. We’re still looking forward to bringing the updated YN website to you in the near future, and we’ll have a system for officially registering Yuri’s Night events available soon.

The new website features improved party search capabilities, an all-new backend for event organizers, and many other exciting design and layout features.

Thanks for your patience as we continue to Rock The Planet!

Yuri’s Night announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Houston-based RFC Media, LLC, producers of Third Rock Radio. Third Rock, an online radio station developed under a Space Act Agreement through NASA, mixes “new rock” music with NASA news and updates, and has received rave reviews since its launch earlier this month.

“From the beginning, Yuri’s Night has strived to mix science and the arts,” said Yuri’s Night Executive Director Ryan Kobrick. “Partnered with RFC Media and Third Rock, we will continue to rock the planet!”

In the MOU, Yuri’s Night and RFC Media agree to cross-promotional efforts through their respective websites, mailing lists, and other media–including on the Third Rock Radio station. The MOU also calls for efforts to host a live Yuri’s Night event on Third Rock annually on or around April 12.

Yuri’s Night is pleased to enter into this agreement with RFC Media, an organization equally dedicated to space outreach and making space fun.

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 560 parties in 75 countries in 2011, including events in Tokyo, San Francisco, the NASA Ames Research Center, and the International Space Station.

About Third Rock Radio

THIRD ROCK is an online radio station, broadcasting live 24/7 with a mission of New Rock Discovery, and a passion for the excitement of what’s happening at NASA. THIRD ROCK RADIO features updates on NASA’s newest missions and discoveries, as well as a healthy dose of great New Rock music of all kinds, along with some that you already know and love. THIRD ROCK is produced and executed by Houston-based RFCMedia, the leader in online radio that is focused on brands and business.

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

As we begin to wind down the year 2011, it’s time to start getting ready for the 12th year of Yuri’s Night!

The new Yuri’s Night website–and party registration system–will be going live in less than two weeks, so it’s time to get prepared. Start getting volunteers for your event planning team together and thinking about how your Yuri’s Night 2012 celebration will “Make an Impact”.

We’re working on creating some guides to help you throw the awesomest Yuri’s Night events, so keep watching for the latest updates from the Yuri’s Night Global Team!

The MOU calls for the NSS and Yuri’s Night to promote each other’s organization to its respective members. The NSS will help promote Yuri’s Night to its membership and Yuri’s Night in turn will promote the NSS to participants in the World Space Party. In addition, Yuri’s Night event organizers are encouraged to work with local NSS representatives and members in the planning of their events.

The Yuri’s Night Global Team expects to announce other high-profile MOUs and partnerships with space-related organizations throughout the Yuri’s Night 2012 “year”. In 2011, Yuri’s Night partnered with the Space Frontier Foundation and the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) among other organizations. Work on Yuri’s Night 2012 officially kicked off last May for the world’s largest celebration of space and space exploration next April.

Our first interview is with Vitor Diel, a journalist and author from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Temporary tattoos are a staple of any Yuri’s Night event, but Vitor first caught our eye when he became the first person (to our knowledge) to get a permanent tattoo of the ‘Yurihead’ YN logo. Vitor is a huge fan of both Yuri’s Night and Yuri Gagarin himself; his interest in the latter began when he started reading about the Soviet space program “tens of years ago”. Vitor “follows Yuri’s Night across the world via its website, which makes me very jealous of all the people, all over the world, that gather to celebrate the importance of Gagarin’s achievement.” So when Vitor decided to get a Gagarin tattoo, the Yurihead was a natural choice. “Turns out,” he said, “the ‘Yurihead’ is actually the best Gagarin image to be applied as a tattoo!”

Vitor didn’t surprise anybody when he announced his tattoo choice: “All my friends and family know about my Gagarin obsession, so when they saw that my first tat ever was actually the cosmonaut’s face, they acted like it was an obvious choice of mine. Besides that, people love the looks of it and say it was a creative choice for a tat.”

Vitor wants to remind the rest of the Yuri’s Night community that you should “keep yourselves informed about your nation’s space and science news, wherever you are from. We’ve come a long way since Sputnik and Gagarin, but there’s a lot more to be discovered and all the nations can and should cooperate on that–because space, unlike Earth, has no boundaries.”

You can keep up with Vitor at the space blog It’s Full Of Stars, which he co-edits, where you can also read “Space Audacity”, a work where Vitor mashes up the Yuri Gagarin story with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity“. Thanks, Vitor, for your enthusiasm for space and for helping us to Rock The Planet!

If you have someone with a great Yuri’s Night story that you’d like to nominate for a YNterview, please email Brice Russ at rbruss@yurisnight.net.

We want your event in 2012 to be the best it has ever been, and that means that you need to start thinking about planning today.  What kind of event are you going to host and who is going to help plan the event?  Will you host it at your school, a local bar, your workplace, a park?  Start looking at venues now, so that you’re ready for the big day on April 12!

You will be able to register your event on the Yuri’s Night website when the new site goes live in the next couple months.  Keep checking back or subscribe to our RSS feed to get all the latest updates!

“Not only do this year’s new arrivals include leaders of such organizations as Astronauts4Hire, SEDS, and the Federation of Galaxy Explorers,” said Assistant Director Brice Russ, “but we’re bringing back most of the YN11 Global Team members that made last year’s festivities such a resounding success. I’m extremely excited to see what we can accomplish this year.”

As with last year, the 2012 Executive will be split up into four teams–Operations, Outreach, Media, and Digi.

(Italicized names below indicate returning members)

OPERATIONS TEAM: (led by Executive Director Ryan Kobrick)
Chief Financial Officer (and Assistant Director) – Tim Bailey
Chief Strategist/Director of Event Expansion – Nicholas de Leon
Director of Marketing – Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto
Contest Manager – Greg Wagner
Directors of Special Projects – Marcia Fiamengo, Alan Steinberg
Director of Awesome – Carolyn Belle

OUTREACH TEAM:
Directors of Outreach: Ray Sanders, H. Aziz Kayihan
Regional Outreach (US): Rayna Hall
Regional Outreach (International): Sudeep Neupane
Science Center Outreach: Cat Aboudara
Middle/High School Outreach: Mikayla Diesch
College Outreach: Abby Dickes
Regional Outreach (Europe): Dorian Bozicevic, Maria Pflug-Hofmayr
Regional Outreach (Asia): Nur Liyana Che Md Azim
Regional Outreach (Middle East): Amin Jamshidi, Serkan Yildiz, Nouf Al-Jalaud

MEDIA TEAM: (led by Assistant Director Brice Russ):
Web Content Coordinators: David Parmet, Rick Hanton
Director of Social Media: Jen Scheer
Media Liaison: Rob Shannon

DIGITEAM: (led by Master of Electrons Jeffrey Alles)
Geospatial Coder: Rocky Persaud
Apps Developer: Stephen Prater
Webcast Producer: Benjamin Higginbotham
Webcast Coordinator: Brian Simmons
Rick Hanton and Jen Scheer will also serve as DigiTeam members as needed.

Loretta Whitesides and Chris Lewicki also return as members of the Yuri’s Night Board of Directors, along with Ryan Kobrick, Tim Bailey and Brice Russ.