Family-friendly event FREE to the public…

Celebrate the first man in space on Yuri’s Night April 12 from 7-9 pm with featured speaker Bob Sieck, former NASA space shuttle launch director, at American Space Museum, Titusville, FL. (See below for address, map and contact.)

Sieck, launch director for 52 Shuttle launches and former program director, will share his insight to the dangerous first flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia that occurred 20 years to the date after Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic single orbit of Earth on April 12, 1961.

The 57th anniversary of man entering outer space will also feature an attempt to make radio contact with a passing satellite by Dave Jordan of the Amateur Radio Satellite Organization (AMSAT). And Ozzie Osband of the museum will talk about upcoming launches on the Space Coast.

Yuri’s Night is celebrated world-wide when on April 12, 1961 Gagarin blasted off Earth and flew in his Vostok 1 spacecraft for one orbit of the Earth and into immortality. He died in 1968 in a jet crash while training for a Soviet moon landing.

The date coincides with NASA’s launch of the first Space Shuttle Columbia, STS-1, in 1981, with astronauts John Young, former moonwalker, and Bob Crippen, rookie, aboard. It has been called the world’s most dangerous manned test flight of any air or spacecraft.

Bob Sieck was the NASA chief shuttle project engineer when the unflown “Space Transportation System” was launched with Columbia on its maiden voyage. Sieck’s illustrious career with NASA began in 1964 as a Gemini spacecraft system engineer. He is honored with many awards from his peers and has great insight into the workings of the American space program.