This Saturday (April 11), 50 years after Apollo 13 launched to the moon, you can celebrate human spaceflight with a Yuri's Night livestream event.
Yuri's Night events have been held annually since 2001 and were originally designed as a way to celebrate human spaceflight. The event is named after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to go to space on April 12, 1961. Saturday's livestream begins at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT/4 p.m. PDT) and you can watch it live here and on Space.com at the broadcast time.
In addition to the main annual Yuri's Night event, including music, art, science and more, people also independently throw their own "Yuri's Nights" all around the world however they want in whatever location they want.
Related: Vostok 1: How the First Human Spaceflight Worked (Infographic)
However, while "there is no 'typical' Yuri's Night party," Tim Bailey, executive director of Yuri's Night, told Space.com in an email, this weekend will certainly be different from previous celebrations. "This year almost all local events have been canceled to help slow the spread of the coronavirus," he said. The closures also mean that the annual event will be livestreamed.
But the online event will feature an all-star cast of scientists, artists and astronauts who will be participating in the event. Spaceflyers taking part include South Korean astronaut Soyeon Yi, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and retired NASA astronauts Nicole Stott and Scott Kelly, Bailey said, while other guests include celebrity science communicator Bill Nye, former rocket scientist and current CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA Sylvia Acevedo, founding member of the Grateful Dead Bob Weir and "Star Trek: Voyager" actor Robert Picardo.
Alongside the livestream, Yuri's Night will hold a costume contest to mark the occasion, so don your favorite flight suit or get creative and make an imaginative space-inspired costume with things you already have at home. You could even win "fabulous prizes," Bailey said, if you enter your costume by posting it on Twitter with the hashtag #YurisNight.
You can watch the livestream and stay up-to-date with the evolving list of guests here.
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