Space Day is an event celebrated around the world on the first Friday of May each year. This year (2007) Space Day was held on the fourth of May. Space Day is an educational initiative to encourage students in the areas of mathematics, science, technology and engineering as exciting fields of study.
In the next ten years there is expected to be a great demand for young scientists and engineers, and so this is a vitally important program for the furthering of our efforts to continue to explore space, and for giving some spectacular opportunities for capable and interested young people.
Space Day was first introduced in 1997. Space Day promotes the efforts of NASA and other space agencies around the world. An important aspect of Space Day is to look at the exciting opportunities which are available to us through space travel and exploration.
Space Day events are held in all states of the US as well as other countries around the world.
One of the interesting projects of Space Day has been the Students Signatures in Space program. This program has encouraged students to add their signatures to posters at their various Space Day events. On the next available flight, NASA then takes the posters into space. The posters are afterwards returned to their respective schools, along with a flight certificate and a photograph of the crew who carried the signatures.
The theme for 2007 is “50 Years In Space And Still Havin’ A Blast!” This theme is in recognition of the launch of the satellite Sputnik on October 4, 1957, which was the beginning of human explorations in space and was the beginning of what we call the Space Race.
Since that date many important advances have been made, including the first human in space: Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961 and the first human’s walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969.
An exciting program for the future is the possible manned mission to Mars sometime after 2010. Space tourism has also been touted as a possibility, which, although incredibly expensive in the early stages, is an exciting opportunity for the future of space travel.
So if you are interested in galaxies far, far away, don’t worry about what happened a long time ago, look to the future and May the fourth be with you.
Lockheed Martin Space Day http://www.spaceday.org/conmgmt/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=80&op=page&SubMenu=
Challenger Center: Space Day
Learn more with these Space Shuttle websites.