Yuri’s Fun Run Houston Houston, TX   Apr 3, 2021 (CANCELED, 2022 TBD)

The Yuri’s Fun Run Houston is part of an annual worldwide celebration that commemorates the first human in space, as well as the first orbital flight of the US Space Shuttle. Both these pioneering events took place on April 12th – in 1961 and 1981 respectively. As such, our race is always run on, or close to, the 12th April, and is often held in conjunction with a Family Space Day celebration with interactive booths, displays and simple water rocket demonstrations. Yuri’s Night celebrations around the world fuel public interest in space exploration, technology, and the aerospace industry.

For the first nine years, we held our race at Challenger 7 Memorial Park in Webster, TX. Named in memory of the astronauts who dedicated their lives to the exploration of space, Challenger Park was an ideal location for an event that celebrates human spaceflight. However, the race outgrew the park, and in 2013 we actively pursued options for alternative locations to celebrate our 10th anniversary. An important factor in determining the new location was that it holds an aspect of significance to human spaceflight. After considering several different possibilities, the decision was made to move our race to the City of Nassau Bay, where many astronauts, engineers, technicians and flight directors have lived from the early days of the Apollo program to the current day. The course takes runners by former homes of many of the early era astronauts that lived in the city.