The phrase "an astonishing request" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe a request that is surprising or hard to believe, often due to its nature or implications.
Example: "When she asked for a month-long vacation in the middle of the busiest season, I couldn't help but think it was an astonishing request."
Alternatives: "a remarkable request" or "an incredible request."
Mr. Burgess was hardly announcing a Warren Commission for modern times, but his astonishing request heartened proponents of the murder theory, as well as throwing a small crumb of legitimacy, perhaps, to those who believe that the 1969 lunar landing took place on a Hollywood back lot and that Elvis lives (with Diana, maybe!) in a Florida trailer park.
A report issued last March by the Justice Department's inspector general found that between 2003 and 2005, the F.B.I. issued an astonishing 143,000 requests using the letters, often in violation of the bureau's own regulations, and sometimes in violation of the law.
However, a list of goods brought to the temple that may have been established in the first half of the 20th century illustrates that there is an astonishing congruence between the request list and the actual delivery list (see Hauser-Schäublin 2008b).
Since 2008, when Google first reported takedowns, the site has seen an astonishing 550,000,000% increase in requests: that year, it received just 68.
With such an ideologically stacked crew, it's not surprising that the Examiner has become a transmitter of conservative misinformation: -- An editorial claimed that "Obama has demanded that the Pentagon trim its budget request by an astonishing 10percentt," failing to note that Obama's budget target is still $14 billion above the Pentagon's current budget.
At first, this request, which amounted to an admission of the state's destitution, was seen as an astonishing softening of the Juche line.
What an astonishing sentence.
It is an astonishing reversal.
It's an astonishing adventure.
Almqvist showed an astonishing versatility.
It was an astonishing announcement.
