posted 03-22-2016 07:30 AM               

'So you say there's a chance': Yuri's Night offers patch for astronaut applicants

Right now, spread out across the United States, there are some 18,300 people who share one thing in common: they all submitted applications to become the next U.S. astronauts.

So many people applied — almost three times as many as NASA's earlier record — that Yuri's Night, the world space party that celebrates the past, present and future of human spaceflight, thinks that it merits a badge of honor, literally.

On Tuesday (March 22), Yuri's Night began selling the new "#BeAnAstronaut patch," commemorating the tremendous turn out for the 2017 NASA astronaut recruitment.

"It's a way to celebrate the record breaking response to the next astronaut selection process," explained Ryan Kobrick, Yuri's Night chairman and president. "Selections like these make us all better citizens... as we consider what more we can offer."