Ambassador András Simonyi
hosted a lunch today at the Hungarian Residence in honor of NASA astronaut Leroy
Chiao, former commander
of Expedition 10 on the International Space Station.
The
Ambassador met Mr. Chiao when the speaker of the Hungarian National
Assembly, Ms. Katalin Szili, visited the NASA Johnson Space Ceter in
Houston, TX in September 2004. Later on, Mr. Chiao
sent Ambassador Simonyi aerial photographs of Budapest, the
capital of Hungary, from the International Space Station via e-mail.
Also
attending the lunch were NASA Deputy Administrator Fred Gregory, the
well-known writer of Cold War-themed spy novels, Alan Furst, and members
of Ambassador Simonyi's rock band, the "Coalition of the
Willing."
From right, Ambassador and Mrs. Simonyi with Mr. and
Mrs. Chiao, and Mr. Gregory
Ambassador Simonyi and Alan Furst
