Press Releases

Budapest, April 3, 2009 15:45

In the afternoon of April 5, Sunday, Hungarian secondary school students from Hungary and abroad will call Hungarian-born space tourist Charles Simonyi aboard the International Space Station through a radio communication link. The radio communication link will be established a few minutes before 5 p.m. in Budapest in the radio room of Tivadar Puskás Telecommunications Secondary School supported by Magyar Telekom.

Sunday is the last time before returning to earth on April 7 when a connection can be established with the astronaut from Hungary. In the course of the communication nine highly talented Hungarian secondary school students from Hungary, Slovakia and Romania can ask questions from Simonyi while he is in space. The students include radio amateurs, astronomy, space research and natural science fans and winners of student competitions.

From 3 p.m. on the day of the connection an event will be held at the venue (1097 Budapest IX., Gyáli út 22) where among others space research experts will give presentations on the world of space travel and the space station. The program is open to the public, organizers are awaiting all interested people.

The radio connection will be established and the presentations will be held at Tivadar Puskás Telecommunications Secondary School that is supported by Magyar Telekom's Telecommunications Education Foundation. The school was built in 1906, and in 1951 adopted the name of Tivadar Puskás, inventor of the telephone exchange. The technical secondary school is today one of the best equipped education institutions in Hungary, its students performed well above the national average at the 2008 competence survey. Simonyi selected the school for establishing the connection among others for its excellent technical equipment. Magyar Telekom contributes through supporting the institution to high standard education of telecommunications and IT professionals of the new millennium.

Charles Simonyi is the world's only space tourist, who could twice visit the International Space Station (ISS). ISS, created with a cooperation of the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and several European nations has been orbiting around the earth since 1998 at a height of 350 km and a speed of 27700 km/h. Simonyi spends a period of 12 days aboard starting on March 28 while orbiting the earth 200 times.

Magyar Telekom and education

Magyar Telekom is committed to sponsoring education in Hungary. Being the leading infocommunication service provider in Hungary the company plays a major role in supporting technical and business higher education in Hungary, in addition to Tivadar Puskás Telecommunications Secondary School.

The company, in cooperation with the Technical and Economic University of Budapest (BME), Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) and other companies, established the Interuniversity Telecommunications and IT Center with the objective to conduct international research and development activities in the fields of Internet-based telecommunications, mobile communication technologies and systems. Another joint project of BME and Magyar Telekom is the Media Education and Research Center at Technical University of Budapest's Sociology and Communication Department where research projects approach the new media, the Internet from the points of view of social sciences, technology and IT. Magyar Telekom also provides scholarships for students and research staff of Corvinus University and Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.