KAIST’s proud alumna and the first Korean astronaut, Soyeon Yi, held the event Yuri’s Night in the Creative Learning Building on April 14th. People from as far as Ulsan, Anyang and Seoul joined the occasion to celebrate the first manned spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin and enjoyed themselves. Having begun last year, Yuri’s Night is not yet well-advertised to KAIST students despite being a global event. The KAIST Herald met with the organizer to hear more about the occasion.

Can you briefly introduce yourself?
Hi, my name is Soyeon Yi, and I am a senior researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. I have organized Yuri’s Night in Korea since it began last year, and I am hoping someone else can take up the job of preparing next year’s Yuri’s Night instead of me.

When and how did Yuri’s Night begin?
The first Yuri’s Night began in 2001, when a small number of students majoring in engineering gathered near Washington D.C. to throw a pizza party celebrating the first manned spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin. The reason for the celebration is that the first manned flight is a great leap for the whole of mankind rather than only the Russians. People around the world, even from Ghana and Congo, agreed to the idea and started Yuri’s Night celebrations of their own in their countries. Especially in the U.S., the event grew bigger in scale by the year and is now similar to a science and culture festival. As I was helping people from other countries to hold Yuri’s Night, I thought that it would be a nice idea to start it up in Korea as well, thus joining the global celebration of humanity’s past, present and future in space. That was the motive for holding Yuri’s Night in Korea since last year.

Who is organizing Yuri’s Night in Korea and how is it run?
What Yuri’s Night should really be like is ordinary people organizing the event on their own, rather than the people working in the field of aerospace in particular, because it is intended for anyone interested in space and science to gather, talk and have fun. However, Yuri’s Night in Korea is still taking baby steps, so for now I am organizing the event with the help of volunteers. There are quite a lot of people fascinated by space in Korea as well, so I really wish any one of them would step up to organize the event in the future.

What are some of the programs in Yuri’s Night?
The programs for Yuri’s Night are not set and vary for each event. On deciding what to do during the event, we try to reflect what the people gathered wish to do as much as possible, but by then the event itself would be too incoherent. Therefore, the Yuri’s Night Global Executive Team decides a theme every year for Yuri’s Night all over the world to follow. Last year, I gave a lecture and the whole event seemed like it was focused on me, the first Korean astronaut. That is why this year I invited lecturers from a rocket making club and OSSI (Open Source Satellite Initiative) to speak about how there are people who do not belong to any government-related institutions working in the field of space and rockets.

How do you want Yuri’s Night to progress in the future?
Science-related events in Korea are almost always organized by some type of institution or the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology and involve administrative employees to help out. Unlike these, I want Yuri’s Night to remain as it is, except grow bigger in size. The casual and comfortable environment of Yuri’s Night, where people bring dishes to share with participants and talk with each other freely, should be what other parties should be like as well.

Do you have anything to say to the students?
When I decided KAIST as the venue for Yuri’s Night, I anticipated a lot of KAIST students to participate, since they are more likely to be interested in this field than ordinary people and should have no trouble attending an event held on their own campus. Sadly, only 20% to 30% of the participants were KAIST students, and it was disappointing how students would not even bother to come to an event that is happening on their doorsteps. Bringing dishes to share and auctioning for charitable causes might be somewhat burdensome to them, but those are not mandatory. The whole event is free, and all we require from the participants is to have fun. People even come from places like Ulsan, Anyang and Seoul by bus to join the event. Next year’s Yuri’s Night should be around this time of the year as well, so I would really like to ask for more students to join us then.