Saturday, December 11, 2010

Space Christmas: DLR

Wednesday was the official beginning of the Space Christmas season, with the first space holiday party of hte year. (Jeff calls it Space Christmas because almost every week night for two weeks some space company or organization throws a holiday party, and we eat and drink for free.)

The holiday party was hosted by DLR, the German Space Agency. It was at the Army/Navy club in downtown DC, which was very oak-paneled and fancy. There were lots of people there - everyone from the NASA Administrator to my group of space friends. Jeff and I sat at a table and chatted with Tommy, Jaisha, Chiraq, Phil, and a few French interns we met that work for the French launch company, Arianespace. Most of my professors from George Washington were there also - Jeff and I had a nice chat with Henry Hertzfeld and his wife, and I congratulated John Logsdon on his book being finished.

The drinks were nice - I mostly stuck to the very festive choices of champaign or red wine, while Jeff opted for German beer. They also had lots of food to choose from - shrimp, sausages, sauerkraut, roast beef, and plenty of other things. There was a whole separate dessert buffet with a chocolate fountain. Pretty nice!

But the highlight of the night really came at the end, when Buzz Aldrin showed up at the party. A few of us ended up chatting with him for a while and then going out for drinks when the party ended. I'm pretty sure that is awesome enough to warrant its own post, so you can read about it there.

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