Yuri's Night, the First 5 Years
- Paper number
IAC-05-E1.4.04
- Author
Mr. Timothy Bailey, Space Generaton Foundation, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Loretta Hidalgo, United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Kirk Kittell, Orbital Sciences Corporation, United States
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Yuri’s Night is a global outreach project culminating on April 12 every year. This date has global symbolism as the anniversary of the first manned spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. In the United States, April 12 is also the anniversary of STS-1 which launched in 1981 and for Japan, April 12 is the anniversary of their first rocket launch in 1955. Yuri’s Night, the World Party for Space began in 2001 and has been steadily growing in numbers of participants and in name recognition. In 2004 an estimated 10,000 people participated in 78 events in 35 countries. Anyone in the world can register to have a party on or around April 12. Each registered Yuri’s Night party is featured on www.YurisNight.net with links to the party organizers and any specific party website. Every party is also represented as a dot on the World Map as a visual reminder of the global nature of the celebration. Live webcasts have also been utilized to link various parties to each other. The intention of Yuri’s Night is to have younger people experience space exploration as an interactive and fun experience while simultaneously showing them the international and interconnected nature of the space community. Although many party organizers choose to endorse educational programs, lectures, or other community events, the overall concept of Yuri’s Night is to have fun in a space-themed environment. The event has been especially successful among university students and young professionals- a key target audience of the space industry. Yuri’s Night is a completely volunteer-run organization that utilizes the media, the internet and word-of-mouth to attract new parties and new participants. There is no formal membership structure. All space advocacy groups are strongly encouraged to create ways for their members to get involved. The ultimate goal of Yuri’s Night is to create a globally celebrated holiday honoring humanity’s first venture into space.
- Abstract document