Orsolya Ferencz, Ministerial Commissioner for Space Research at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, delivered one of the keynote speeches at the Winter Satellite Workshop 2026, an international space industry conference hosted by Aalto University. Her talk focused on Hungary’s achievements in space technology and human spaceflight as part of the HUNOR program.
Hungary’s national space strategy was adopted in 2021, with human spaceflight identified as a key strategic breakout area, leading to the launch of the HUNOR program. A team of 50–100 professionals worked on the project. Applications for the astronaut program were open until January 2022, and from several hundred candidates, Tibor Kapu was ultimately selected. Astronaut training involved several Hungarian institutions, including universities, the Counter Terrorism Centre (TEK), and the Hungarian Defence Forces. Out of 60 experiments conducted during the AX-4 mission, 25 were Hungarian-led research projects, a result that stands out even by international comparison.
As an interesting note, the Ministerial Commissioner highlighted that this mission marked the second national human spaceflight not only for Hungary, but also for India and Poland.
Special online presentation at our Embassy about Axiom Mission 4 with Tibor Kapu!
Reasearch astronaut Tibor Kapu and trained research astronaut Gyula Cserényi of the HUNOR programme, gave a very interesting online presentation at the Embassy for the Hungarian community. They shared their training and mission experiences, including personal stories, and participants had the opportunity to ask questions.
