Austria

On April 12th the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first manned flight into space will be celebrated around the world, and also in Vienna at MuseumsQuartier.

The 'space-day' will start with the Symposium "Outer Space. The way to the cosmos" at 10:00 with Astronaut Gerhard Thiele. Other speakers are Manuel Valls (ESA), Ulrich Köhler (DLR), Alexander Soucek (ESA) and Eugen Reichl (Astrium). The starter after lunch is a very nice Interview, where the Austrian comedian Heinz Conrads talked to Yuri Gagarin and his wife on TV. Spaceflight is of course a topic, but its influence on arts and culture is another one. The symposium ends at 17:00.

At 18:00 Kunsthalle Wien will show the documentary movie "Always remember Yuri Gagarin", which shows the journey of a small, red Puch 500 car to Moscow and places related with Yuri Gagarin.

At 19:30 Yuri's Night party starts with the award presentation of the Polarstern prize, which is donated by the Austrian Space Forum. With this space day we hope to raise the public interest in spaceflight and scientific education, but also to have some fun until midnight!