Washington, DC, April 05, 2009 –(PR.com)– April 4th, 2009 marks the official beginning of Yuri’s Night 2009, a weeklong celebration of humanity’s presence in space named after spaceflight pioneer Yuri Gagarin. As of April 3rd, over 170 parties in 41 countries had been registered to occur between April 4th and April 12th.
Events being held during the global celebration include: a blowout bash in Reno, Nevada, not far removed from the Burning Man festival; a full day of academic presentations and movie screenings followed by dancing and DJing in Stuttgart, Germany; parties in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo; 19 separate celebrations in Romania alone; celebrations in the Second Life virtual world; and several parties supported by NASA, including at least two being held on the grounds of NASA centers. Yuri’s Night parties are being thrown as far north as Helsinki, Finland and as far south as Concepcion, Chile–and many, many other places in between.
Yuri’s Night is traditionally held on April 12th, the day of Yuri Gagarin’s manned launch (in 1961) and the first launch of the Space Shuttle (in 1981); however, due to April 12 falling on Easter in 2009, the decision was made to make the event a “Yuri’s Week” to allow everyone the opportunity to celebrate. A few events in Nigeria and elsewhere have already kicked off their festivities, and Yuri’s Night events are planned to be held virtually every night up through the 12th itself.
Yuri’s Night has been featured on CNN, MTV, Wired Magazine, NPR, and the BBC, and will be appearing on the Food Network this year on the hit TV show “Ace of Cakes”. Yuri’s Night is a common destination for astronauts and private space travelers, though all sorts of celebrities have also been seen at Yuri’s Night events in the past. Yuri’s Night can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and UStream, so visit these sites–as well as the Yuri’s Night Blog, of course–for further updates.
Yuri’s Night is a project of the Space Generation Advisory Council, an organization dedicated to developing the next generation of space leaders.
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