Yuri’s Night Houston

Holy Cow!

It’s been over two months already! I think Time is accelerating more and more. Anyway here’s a drastically delayed synopsis of Yuri’s Night Houston, there  is even a slideshow for you at the bottom. Hope you’ve all been well and are using this Summer to find yourself under the Stars often. Enjoy!

April 10th, 2010 - Yuri’s Night Houston

Waking up bright and early was the Yuri’s 5k Fun Run team. They made their way to the Challenger 7 Memorial Park to setup for the nearly 200 racers who woke with the Sun to run with us. Not only did they get to race around the park and up Challenger Hill, the racers received a swanky running shirt with their package! The fun run this year was a great success in both the kids run and the 5k! Thanks to all the runners, volunteers, and sponsors who helped us raise nearly $3000.00 for the Houston Museum of Natural Science: Challenger Learning Center!! ( A branch of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education).

The next event was Space Day at Discovery Green in downtown Houston! With it’s friendly park atmosphere and tons of space (for the water rockets!), Discovery Green is a great venue for Space Day . We had a little rain early on that sent us for the tents but luckily the Sun powered through the clouds and soon the park was packed and our exhibits were engaging the crowds. Texas A&M SEDS came down with great coloring activities for the kids and a 3D picture of Mars! We also had the JSC Engineer’s without Borders group out and they were showing off all the good work they do around the world with examples! A simple hand washing station and a good water pump, simple things we take for granted but can really help the health of a community. Also out were AIAA Houston, a local High school robotics team, and a bunch of exhibits from NASA JSC! All of which intrigued the public and spurred great conversations. Finally we had the SWE community out with Water Rockets! They were obviously the big hit of the event and were constantly launching. Check the pictures below for some highlights!

The final event from Yuri’s Night Houston was the Celebration at the Hilton America’s right next to Discovery Green.   Before the evening got too far in, a short celebration of Yuri’s Gagarin’s flight occurred with Mr. Robert Pearlman of CollectSpace.com giving us the historical story. He Wow-ed us with stories for both Vostok-1 and STS-1 Columbia, sharing some of the inside stories he’s discovered and showing us some real pieces of history.  After the insightful stories about two of the greatest accomplishments of Humanity to date, a great cake decorated with images from Yuri Gagarin’s flight was devoured by the crowd!

After the late night snack, the Spiney-Norman Texas retook the stage.  Their energy and great instrumentation got the people on the dance floor and moving, even with the cake!  As the crowd got into the swing of things, the next surprise joined the celebration: The 501st Legion (aka Vader’s Fist).  Stormtroopers and Boba Fett descended upon the crowd, but never fear, for a Jedi was there to keep them…we’ll say ‘In check’.   After the 501st joined the crowd and got their groove on, it was time for the event of the evening. That’s right, for the third year in a row Jacobs Technology was able to sponsor a raffle for one lucky person to experience weightlessness on a Zero-G flight!  To keep things fair we let the Jedi pick the winner and if you see the pictures below you’ll see that our winner was Amy!!  Amy has always wanted to be an Astronaut and even paid for her own way to space camp when she was little!  Now she get’s the opportunity to experience true weightlessness, Congrats Amy! And that concluded our night. The Hilton venue was great and the staff and volunteers did an excellent job setting up all the cool exhibits we had. Thanks to Esvy Photography,  Mr. Tenenbaum, and everyone else for the great photos!

Also Thanks to everyone who came out whether supporting, volunteering, educating, or just celebrating, it was a great day honoring two great achievements!!   Look out for us next year as planning is already beginning so look for updates as things start to form up.

We look forward to celebrating with you next year, and thanks again to everyone who took part in Yuri’s Night Houston or Yuri’s Night World Wide 2010!

Hello Yuri’s Night goers,

Just a note to say Thanks to all those who came out and supported Yuri’s Night Houston 2010! Whether running the Yuri’s 5k, exploring the meaning of it all at Space Day, or Celebrating in the evening, we hope you had a good time and enjoyed yourselves! Also, Congratulations to this Year’s Jacobs sponsored Zero-G Winner!! You’re sure to enjoy that flight!

Look for a full update with pictures in the next couple weeks. Also, don’t forget the real day for Yuri’s Night is April 12th so be sure to raise your gaze to the stars tomorrow!

’til the next post,

-The Yuri’s Night Team

Helloooo Space City!

I know you have been waiting for details for the Yuri’s Night Houston Celebration and here they are!

Quick Run Down:

• Yuri’s Night Houston 2010 Celebration
• 8pm-12am April 10th  @ Hilton Americas - Houston
• Lots of cool space stuff!
• Ticketing Information to come! Be among the first to know about ticketing, email ynhouston.tickets@gmail.com

Full Story:

First off when and where? The Yuri’s Night Houston 2010 Celebration will be from 8pm-12am April 10th@ Hilton Americas - Houston where you will be joining people on all 7 continents in celebrating the 1st person in space, Yuri Gagarin! Yuri’s Night Houston will join around 150 celebrations around the world! (At the time of this posting, get updated here)

Here at the Houston, aka Space City, Celebration you’ll get to experience live music from a great local band Spiny Norman (see their awesome logo below),  some great Space Exhibits, a chance to mingle with local area space enthusiasts, and the opportunity to reflect with others about the amazing technological achievement of sending Human’s to space.  Come and join the world as we celebrate the launch of the first Human into space, Yuri Gagarin, and the first Space Shuttle launch,  STS-1 Columbia!

Ticketing has ran into a few issues this year but we have a work around. While we sort the details express your interest in tickets by sending us an email at ynhouston.tickets@gmail.com and be among the first to know the details on ticketing! (Since the event is next week we really suggest sending us an email! )

Sending us an email to the above address will guarantee you know about the ticketing information when it is finalized and don’t worry we wont use your email for anything other than our personal ticketing information or give it to anyone else. If you don’t want to send us an email, keep checking back here or on our facebook and twitter pages, we expect to have ticketing information early next week (links above and on the right).

For a few more details on ticketing information check out our celebration page and don’t forget to check out the other two events The Yuri’s 5k and Space Day!! Enjoy an entire day dedicated to Space Exploration!

Stay tuned, more details to come!

-The YN Houston Team

This year’s band:

Hello again Yuri’s Night Fans!

It’s less than a month until this Year’s Yuri’s Night Houston Events!
This post is to announce that Space Day is a Go!

Come join us at Discovery Green in Downtown Houston on April 10th! We’ll be there from 11am-5pm with space exhibits and speakers from all experience levels from college on up. You’ll also be able to interact with various engineering groups from around the area including Engineers without Borders, Society of Women Engineers, and Texas A&M Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.  We’ll also have the pieces for ‘The Future of Space’ Art Contest up for your viewing pleasure. You can even vote and find us the crowd favorite!

So gather up your friends and family and come on out to Discovery Green and enjoy the day with us!

See you all soon!

-The Yuri’s Night Houston Team

PS: We’ll leave you with this, credit NASA

Do you know a creative genius in grades K-8??  Here is an opportunity for them to shine!  This year we are once again hosting an art contest with the topic “The Future of Space”.  This event allows youngsters to imagine what the future of space may look like and gives them an opportunity to excercise their imaginations; for it is there where the future lies.

The deadline for receipt of the art pieces is March 31st so it’s coming up quick but the effort is well worth it as there are excellent prizes!  Check out our “The Future of Space - Art Contest” page link for more detail and contest rules.

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend!

Yuri’s Night Houston occurred Saturday April 4^th, helping kick off a week of Yuri’s Night Celebrations around the world, totaling 207 events in 46 countries! The Houston events included an early morning 5k Fun Run and an evening Celebration.

The Fun Run at 8am was held at Challenger Park with the intention of raising money for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Volunteers from multiple organizations showed up early on the foggy morning to setup. As the fog cleared deer were able to be seen in the fields and the runners assembled. With a blast of a horn they were off around the course, up the Challenger Memorial knoll, and through the woods. When all was said and done over 150 people made the early morning run raising a lot of money for a healthy donation! (Over $1500!! Final amount to come.)

After the Fun Run was over volunteers from the Space community descended upon the Meridian up in Houston at High Noon and began preparing for the evening’s celebrations. Space Exhibits were set up, tables and chairs organized, posters, banners, and signs were all hung, a TV and laptop were set up to loop space videos, and the VIP room was decorated. All this work for the special celebration of Human Space Flight!

At 8pm the doors opened and the crowd started to enter. To their amazement there was a lot of space visuals including a time line of NASA’s Human Space Flight programs, information on the constellation program, banners promoting exploration, and models of the Ares I and Ares V!! After giving people some time to get to know the area and get into the groove of the evening thanks to the SoundChemistDJ, opening remarks similar to the following were given.

Opening Remarks:

Good Evening Yuri’s Night Houston!

Welcome to Yuri’s Night Houston 2009! I hope you are all aware of why we are here tonight, but if you aren’t let me refresh your memory real quick. This year is the 48^th year since Human’s began to directly explore space. 48 years since Yuri Gagarin’s flight around the Earth! We are also celebrating the 28^th Anniversary of the first Space Shuttle Launch, the 40^th Anniversary of the Apollo programs first landing on the Moon, and it is also the International Year of Astronomy Celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of Galileo’s first use of the Telescope! We have been zooming in on the Universe farther and farther for 400 years! And there are still more things to celebrate such as the ISS power system getting up to full power and a recycling system to enable doubling the crew size!

All of these things are amazing Human achievements! Yet, why do we remember them? We remember them because these events pushed the abilities of the people who made them happen. They pushed themselves and in so doing expanded their abilities and ours as Humans. They expanded our understanding of the Universe because we were exploring new territory and new realms. These singular achievements are remembered because they pushed boundaries, they redefined what ‘possible’ means. So tonight we celebrate those in the past, present, and future who redefine those seemingly impossible feats as possible! Welcome to Yuri’s Night Houston!

In order to ignite Yuri’s Night Houston 2009, a pair of fire dancers started the evenings performances to the awe of the crowd. Spinning balls of fire and a flaming hula-hoop definitely grabbed the crowds attention. Following the Fire dancers, the 501^st Squadron made their debut at Yuri’s Night Houston! The Imperial stormtroopers and officers, as well as Boba Fett were an instant hit! As the evening went on the Troopers even started to relax and get down on the dance floor! You could possibly take this as proof that anything is possible.

Following the appearing of the 501^st, the Russian singer Milana sang us some beautiful music in Russian. She has been listened to around Johnson space center before as well as having her music played on the ISS. As Yuri Gagarin was Russian and Yuri’s Night is a world event, it was great to have a Russian component to the evening. Thanks Milana!

Following Milana’s performance it was time for the door prize raffles. First up, a great book on The Apollo Program and a Yuri’s Night T-shirt were raffled off together. After that a Discovery Flight from Dutch Wings was raffled off! That was just to whet the appetite for the Jacobs Zero-G Raffle to come later.

So after the quick raffling, we brought the celebration back up to speed and back to Texas with some homegrown ‘Rock-it Scientists’! ‘The Rock-it Scientists’ did just what their name implies and literally rocked Yuri’s Night with all the good stuff! About two-thirds of the way through the set it was finally time for the Jacobs Zero-G Raffle!

Hoots and Hollers erupted as Mr. Lon Miller took the stage for the Zero-G raffle. Before drawing the winner, Mr. Miller made some excellent remarks on where we are and where we are going in the Space Industry! (FYI, we’re going to the Moon!) Mr. Miller also laid out a hefty challenge, for which Yuri’s Night Houston will be recruiting in the future, and that is to have Yuri’s Night fill the George R. Brown Convention center in 5 years! That will be Awesome!

After the remarks it was time for the Zero-G Raffle! With great anticipation the crowd waited until the name came out…and that name was Keellin Volcanes! She is the 2009 Jacobs Zero-G Raffle winner! Congrats Keellin and have fun experiencing Zero-G!!

With the Zero-G Raffle complete we got back to the celebration of spaceflight with some more of ‘The Rock-it Scientists’ Rock! With the crowd singing and dancing the band finished up the great set and then handed off to the SoundChemist DJ who got nearly everybody straight to the dance floor and kept us all there celebrating spaceflight until the wee hours of the morning! A great day, a great run, a great celebration, a great Yuri’s Night Houston 2009!

From Yuri’s Night Houston, Thanks to all of our performers, those that provided us with the great space exhibits, our excellent and devoted volunteers, and of course our sponsors for letting us get the word out about space by celebrating some of Humanity’s great achievements! Keep redefining what is ‘possible’ and we’ll see you in 2010!

Here is a link to the pics and a slideshow!

-The Yuri’s Night Houston Team

So to recap…

Who: Yuri Gagarin+You+Your Friends(=Awesome!)

What: Yuri’s Night Houston 2009

When: 8pm Saturday April 4th

Where: The Meridian 1503 Chartres St. Houston, TX

Why: To celebrate the dawn of Human Spaceflight with Yuri Gagarins Flight April 12, 1961, The first Space Shuttle Launch STS-1 Columbia April 12, 1981,  it has been 40 years since Human’s first landed on the moon (almost), and it is the 400th Anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope! Come celebrate those who redefine ‘Possible’!

How Much: $10 General Admission tickets at the door (see below for what’s included)
$30 VIP (Presale only!)

What’s Included:
General Admission:

The Rockit Scientists Band
Russian Singer Millanova
Sound Chemist DJ spinning
Fire Dancers
Door Prizes
General Admission Special Surprises
and A Chance to Win the Jacobs Zero-G Raffle!

VIP

All the General Admission Stuffs
VIP Room
VIP Bar
Appetizers
VIP Special Surprises

Our Sponsors

Our Host:

Thanks! See you soon!

-Yuri’s Night Houston 2009 Team

[Slight Clarification: The $10 GA tickets are day of pricing at the door only.]

[FYI,Slight Update to VIP Tickets at 8:01pm March 31st]

Good News! We’ve found a solution to the service fee issues!

Just come show up at Yuri’s Night Houston @ The Meridian for $10 (total for general admission)!! For that price you get everything mentioned in the previous post and you get to bypass the service fees! Now that’s a deal!

If you’re feeling like you want to be a VIP ticket for the night you can pay a little more and get some great appetizers from Phoenicia and access to the VIP room & bar! If you’re early enough you may even get a Yuri’s Night Gift!($30 total for VIP, Presale Only)

Be sure to bring some cash for the Yuri’s Night Shirts and extra tickets to the Zero-G Raffle too!

Woot! This is gonna be Awesome!

PS: If you gotta minute email us so we can get a feel for how many people to expect so we know how many staffers we’ll need. Thanks! yurisnighthouston@gmail.com

PPS: Here’s a summary of the days events!
Yuri’s Night Houston festivities take place this Saturday, April 4^th. Start the day off with the fun run at Challenger Seven Memorial Park. 1K Kids Run begins at 7:45 AM, 5K run begins at 8:00 AM.  Prizes will be awarded and proceeds will benefit the Challenger Center for Space Education. To register, go to https://www.signmeup.com/64179.

Saturday evening, head to the Meridian for the Yuri’s Night Houston celebration.  The evening is sure to be filled with excitement! Celebration goers will enjoy live music from the Rockit Scientists band, music from the SoundChemist DJ, special performances by Russian artist Millana, and fire dancer performers. Numerous space exhibits will be on display as well. Everyone who purchases a ticket will receive one FREE raffle ticket for a chance to win the Jacobs Zero-G raffle. Additional raffle tickets will be sold at the event, and you must be present to win. Don’t miss it! Check back before the event for any last minute updates!