YURI'S NIGHT - WORLD SPACE PARTY

Find "Yuri's Night" party locations and the latest information!  2009 featured 123 parties, spanning 35 countries.

Yuri’s Night is a celebration of humanity’s achievements in space. Each April 12, people from around the world come together to mark the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space, in 1961, and the first launch of the US Space Shuttle, in 1981.  This year, the main party night is Saturday, April 10, but there will be many parties on other nights.  Everyone can participate, so come and join us in celebrating our past–and our future–in outer space!

Human Spaceflight became a reality 45 years ago with the launch of a bell-shaped capsule called “Vostok 1.” The capsule was carrying Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who took his place in history as the first human to leave the bounds of Earth and enter outer space.

Exactly 20 years later, the United States embarked on a new era in spaceflight with the inaugural launch of a new type of spacecraft — the Space Shuttle. Designed to carry a larger crew and large volumes of cargo to orbit, the Space Shuttles became synonymous with human spaceflight for an entirely new generation of young people.

When the next 20-year point arrived, that generation (often called “Gen X”) laid a new space milestone by connecting thousands of people around the world to celebrate and honor the past, while building a stairway to the future. That event was Yuri’s Night, and it continues to bring the excitement, passion and promise of space travel closer to people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds.

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