Ryan L. Kobrick, Ph.D.: Ron Garan

Yuri's Night 2012 officially kicked off on Thursday April 5th with two events: Bucharest, Romania and Washington, DC, USA! The event registrations are still coming in and the current tally is 170 events (9 Virtual), in 42 countries, on all 7 continents. Usually registrations come in fast in the last two weeks and until a week after. Jen and I have already attendi one event and have three more to go! We enjoyed watching First Orbit at Harvard and then checked out their telescope, but unfortunately the clouds did not part for star gazing.

Left: First Orbit screening with macaroons and cupcakes

Right: Harvard's Telescope

Tomorrow we are off to France for the Explore Mars ISS-Mars Conference at the International Space University, which will feature a Yuri's Night celebration/reception in honor of ISU's 25th Anniversary on April 12th. On April 13th there will be a more informal party at a local Strasbourg bar (TBD). After a few days of travel we will make our way back to New York City for our final event. For ISU and NYC I will be bringing the Ron Garan Space Shirt Exhibit (there is no official name for the exhibit), which features Yuri's Night items flown in space last year during the 50th Anniversary of Spaceflight.

Swag flown in space by Astronaut Ron Garan ready for it's first exhibit at ISU's 25th Anniversary / Yuri's Night ISU.

There are a few things people should know about this week:
1. Find an event near you and go check it out: http://yurisnight.net/partylist/
2. Can't find one? It's NOT too late to start your own and it can be a simple gathering of friends.
3. If you are at an event(s) please post pictures or summaries to Yuri's Night Live.

Just for fun, here's a feed of Yuri's Night tweets featuring "yurisnight", which should pick up the last 10 hashtags (#) and mentions (@) courtesy of TwitStatus.com.

Have an awesome Yuri's Night 2012 and Rock the Planet!

Space!
Ryan

Fresh off of one trip to the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, I'm starting make my plans for the next. But this trip isn't for "work", it's for Yuri's Night (YN). All of the YN Global Executive Team pours hours of volunteer time into making the World Space Party happen and occasionally we can participate in conferences and events like the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference (ISDC). At ISDC, the YN Exec has their annual Executive Summit to prepare for the following year's activities and a call for new exec. For 2012, the YN Exec is encouraging events to "Make an Impact" on their local communities as they help inspire and educate the world about human spaceflight. My Yuri's Night plans this season will be an intense world tour as I plan to attend four different Yuri's Night events and it is my intention to bring the space swag flown in space by Astronaut Ron Garan to (at least) three of the events.

Yuri's Night 2011 on the International Space Station.
Video link of the crew saying hello for YN 2011!

Last year, Ron flew six YN t-shirts for the crew of the International Space Station to wear for Yuri's Night on April 12th, which was also the 50th Anniversary of Human Spaceflight. The crew celebrated with a Russian dinner and a movie! In Ron's acceptance video for the 2011 Spirit of Yuri's Night Award he surprised us by telling us he would be bringing his shirt back to earth (Video on Fragile Oasis). He had mentioned in an email that he would wash the shirt, and jokingly I replied that we could have a "smell space" exhibit. Needless to say, the shirt was not washed as it retained a slight metallic smell of the International Space Station. Ron had also flown three other Yuri's Night items, an invitation placard (post card advert we designed), a sticker, and a blinky LED lapel pin (button). The three objects plus Ron's shirt were sent to me with certificates and I plan to share them with the world. Below the photos of the items are the Yuri's Night events where they will be featured. After Yuri's Night 2012 we will be looking for a host location for the exhibit. Here's where the space swag will be displayed for April 2012:

APR 7: SpaceUp Boston / Yuri's Night Boston (SpaceUp Registration)
APR 12: 25th Anniversary of International Space University / Yuri's Night ISU as part of the Explore Mars "International Space Station and Mars Conference - Europe" (Tickets/Details)
APR 13 (*not on display): Yuri's Night Strasbourg (Details unfolding, check YN website)
APR 20: Yuri's Night New York City (Website)

Just in case you were wondering about the blog title, I recently saw Book of Mormon on Broadway in New York City (awesome!) and sometimes when I talk about Yuri's Night and human spaceflight it feels like I'm spreading a religion. I guess that's how passion works sometimes! On that note: Look for the Yuri's Night Global Executive Team members at the ISDC this May and register today to help "Make an Impact" on April 12th!

Rock the Planet!
Space!

Ryan