Monthly Archives: April 2013

A Good Time Was Had!

Yesterday was our Yuri’s Night Party with Mach 30. We had two maker spaces and our local high school involved as well as various members of Mach 30. It was a good time in spite of a few glitches.

First of all, Aaron had some issues with the Ground station he built. Some of the parts didn’t come in until the last minute. Then after he ran the first test, something died. Our suspect was the USB driver or actual port on his netbook. This meant that while we could show some things, there wasn’t going to be a live demonstration of the Ground Station. Aaron stayed up all night trying to fix it, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Then there were some issues with me getting onto the high school network. The John Mall High School login server shut down, and our IT guy was out of range. So, I grabbed Mr. Somera and the three students and we came over to our house. Luckily, we arrived just in time to start the party.

Here is the video of the party. We all had a good time.

Mach 30 Yuri’s Night Party, 2013

 

Yuri’s Night

Space history is sprinkled with notable dates. We recognize October 4th, 1957, the launch of Sputnik as the beginning of Space Race. President Kennedy’s declaration that America would have a man on the moon by the end of the decade on May 25th, 1961 is another date, as is the moon landing on July 20th, 1969.

Two space related events have taken on a new significance. On April 12th, 1961, The Soviet Union launched the first man, Yuri Gagarin into space. Twenty years later, the United States launched Columbia, the first shuttle.

Yuri’s Night is an annual celebration that commemorates Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic first manned space flight in 1961, and NASA’s inaugural flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia, (STS-1), in 1981. The celebrations began in 2001, and has become a worldwide event. Together with Mach 30 and John Mall High School, we are celebrating Yuri’s Night.

Yuri’s Night covers a wide range of space and techno centric celebrations from large public events sponsored by NASA to private gatherings spent watching the stars  or movies. The idea is to celebrate the achievements of human space flight across the globe.

Mach 30 is holding a Yuri’s Night Celebration on April 13th, starting at 4:30pm, EDT. Join us on Google+ hangouts and YouTube.

 Visit the website for Yuri’s Night and see if there is a party near you!