Yuri's Night

April 12th is remembered for two reasons: 

1) The date the first human entered space and completed one orbit, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin

2) The maiden flight of NASA's Space Shuttle, STS-1

Every year on this date, Yuri's Night events are registered around the world and the global space party commences. Events range from tea parties and  nights out to low-key nights in.

 Of course, with my university being the International Space University we were more than excited to celebrate these two incredible milestones in human spaceflight and the end of our final exams just so happened to coincide with the date. Myself and a few friends arranged the festivities and as soon as the 4 hours of our last exam were up, food was ordered and a Russian vodka toast to Yuri was given by the Master's co-ordinator Professor Chris Welch with the class. 

All in all, it was a great Yuri's Afternoon, with everybody in a fantastic mood we even spoke to Yuri's Night co-founder Loretta Whitesides who was thrilled to see and share with us her insight into the meaning of the date (it was also her birthday)! The next morning, the class flew to Russia for the week, I'll be posting about this trip very soon as I write this from Moscow Airport waiting to board my flight to Paris.

From Russia with Love!

-Nikita