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

Hello Space City!

Come join us in celebrating the 49th year of Human Spaceflight and the 29th year of flying the Space Shuttle! This Saturday we have three great events to celebrate Human Spaceflight firsts and inspire a whole new round of firsts. Join us at any or all of the events below!

See you soon!
-The Yuri’s Night Houston 2010 Team

Yuri’s Night Houston 2010 Celebration(PRESALE TICKETS ONLY,Friday Deadline!):

Come and join the world in celebrating one of Humanity’s greatest achievements: Spaceflight. On April 12th 1961 the first Human was launched into space, Yuri Gagarin. Twenty years to the day after that first launch, the first reusable spacecraft was launched, the Space Shuttle: STS-1 Columbia. Come join us in celebrating these and other great spaceflight achievements this April 10th from 8pm - Midnight at Hilton Americas - Houston! We’ll have great live music from Spiny Norman, Space Exhibits,special guests, and more! Get your tickets now!

Yuri’s 5k Fun Run(Register Here):

Honor the dedication of those who put people into space by running the Yuri’s 5 km run/walk on the roads and trails of Challenger Seven Memorial Park. Yuri’s 5k will be held April 10th beginning at 8:15 a.m with a 1K Kid’s Run held at 8:00 a.m. All proceeds from this event benefit the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

Space Day(Details Here):

Space Day, held as part of the Yuri’s Night Houston April 10th celebration, seeks to share science and engineering experiences through interactive exhibits, talks from those within the space industry, and general fun! Join us at Discovery Green from 11am-5pm on April 10th for this free event!

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

That’s the only word we can use to describe this years Yuri’s Night! In the morning we had a great turn out at our 5k Fun Run and were able to raise a good amount for the Challenger Center for Space Science Education! Then in the evening Yuri’s Night Houston 2009 went to The Meridian and it was amazing! We just wanted to take a quick minute to thank all the people who showed up to support the event and all the volunteers & great sponsors that helped make it happen! Yuri’s Night Houston was definately able to celebrate those who redefine what is possible very well!

And there will be more to come in the next few days,  including a full run down of Yuri’s Night Houston 2009 and photo links etc ! Stay tuned! If you have some great shots &/or stories of Yuri’s Night Houston you can send them, or a link to them, to yurisnighthouston@gmail.com and we’ll put them all up together to tell the story.

Thanks again everyone, and remember to keep redefining what is possible!

-The Yuri’s Night Houston Team

P.S. Yuri’s Night Austin,TX celebrates  this next Saturday! Different City, Different Style, Same Cause!

[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!