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A reveler wears a helmet in the shape of a Sputnik satellite during the 2007 Yuri’s Night celebration at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. |
Space enthusiasts are celebrating nearly five decades of human spaceflight – and anxiously awaiting word on what will happen in the decade ahead.
The celebration reaches its peak on Monday – which happens to be the 49th anniversary of the first human flight into outer space, made by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, as well as the 29th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch. Back in 2001, spaceflight fans began organizing “Yuri’s Night” parties to mark the occasion.
For the 10th annual Yuri’s Night, 188 parties (and counting) have been organized in 63 countries on all seven of the world’s continents. Yes, that includes the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica … and probably someplace close to where you live as well.
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