'Yuri's Night 09' The World Party For Space

The annual global celebration of human space exploration, 'Yuri's Night,' will feature over 150 parties in 40 countries on 6 continents this week. This year's event begins on Apr 4 with celebrations in various locations such as New York, USA; Brisbane, Australia; Dhaka, Bangladesh; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The week-long commemoration then culminates on Apr 12 with the 48th observance of the first human spaceflight, piloted by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (CL), and the 28th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle flight (STS-1), commanded by Apollo Moonworker John Young (CR). The main feature of Yuri's Night is the parties organized by local groups all over the world to bring together people who work in the space industry and people who have an avid interest in space exploration. Many of the parties are space-themed all-night dances and raves, yet in recent years the festivities have become more diverse to include activities for all ages and interests. With the multitude of locations hosting celebrations for 'Yuri's Night 09,' most people will be able to find a party in their vicinity. If not, NASA's Co-Lab will also be hosting a Yuri's Night celebration in the online virtual world Second Life. (Credit: Yuri's Night, NASA)

With the Space Shuttle scheduled to retire in about 14 months and the next-generation NASA Orion CEV still about 5 years away from service, several commercial NewSpace firms are planning to help fill the gap in American spaceflight capabilities. SpaceX is preparing to launch the RazakSat Earth-imaging spacecraft for Malaysia next month in what would be the company's first successful commercial mission. Under its space agreement with the NASA COTS program, SpaceX intends to send cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station for the space agency using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule. NASA also has a funded COTS agreement with Orbital Sciences Corp and unfunded agreements with PlanetSpace and SpaceDev. Also, Bigelow Aerospace is offering a US$50M prize to the first private USA team to fly a spacecraft capable of ferrying passengers to its inflatable space habitats in low Earth orbit. Alternatively, firms such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace are advancing commercial spaceflight in the area of suborbital space tourism, with both companies expecting to fly paying passengers by the end of next year. At the '25th National Space Symposium' last week, the 2009 Space Report was released, showing a 2.5 percent increase in overall global space revenues in 2008, rising to US$257B. With the advancement of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, NewSpace firms are now setting their sights on the Moon. The $30M Google Lunar X Prize and the $2M Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge are just 2 examples of increasing interest in private and commercial Moon ventures. (Credit: SpaceX, Virgin, XCOR)