Today, April 12, we celebrated Yuri’s Night at the South Pole. It is an international celebration held on April 12 every year to commemorate the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, and the first Space Shuttle launch on April 12, 1981.

The goal of Yuri’s Night is to increase public interest in space exploration and to inspire a new generation of explorers, while having some fun at the same time. Last year 20,000 people directly participated in Yuri’s Night. 190 parties, in 50 countries, on 7 continents are planned for this year. Together with New Zealand we kicked off the celebration at the South Pole.

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The sun continues its downward spiral below the horizon and it gets a little bit darker every day. For the last week we were blessed with good weather, which was great for CMB observations and taking pictures. Clear skies come with cold temperatures and it got pretty chilly on this week’s cryogenics runs.

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This shot was taken from between Skylab and the Dome. One of my favorite vistas. The New Station can be seen at the horizon.

Please click on the image below to view the panorama:
Temperature: -65.7°C / -86.3°F, Windchill: -82.8°C / -117.1°F, Wind: ESE (102.3°) at 6.1 knt Date: 2003-09-25 05:13:17 UTC