Olympic commitment held aloft in space

An Olympic flag that orbited the Earth for five days with two Chinese astronauts was unwrapped from the returned capsule Wednesday in Beijing a "flag-waving" show of China's commitment to the 2008 Games.

The move was hailed by President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge.

"By taking the Olympic flag into outer space, you have shown the entire world the commitment and involvement of the People's Republic of China in the promotion of the Olympic values and ideals," he said in a congratulatory letter read at the ceremony.

"We all look forward towards the successful hosting of the XXIX Olympiad in 2008 in Beijing," he said.

Executive Vice-President of the Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad Liu Jingmin said the triumph of China's second manned mission will inspire and encourage Beijing to strive for a successful Olympics.

The five-ring flag was among a host of closely-wrapped packages removed from the tightly-guarded return capsule at a hall of Shenzhou VI's developer the Chinese Academy of Space Technology Wednesday afternoon.

The "cats that were let out of the bag" were 64 pieces, including a national flag that marched with Chinese scientists on a polar expedition, a flag for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, stamps and art works by children and noted Chinese artists.

There were also logos of Goldlion Holdings Ltd and some other established companies.

"We used the limited space in the capsule to carry some articles ... so long as they were not corrosive, contained no harmful gas, and posed no danger to astronauts," Zhang Bainan, chief designer of the spacecraft system, said.

The articles weighed less than 20 kilograms, according to Zhang.

Qi Faren, a senior scientist, said they had nothing to do with space tests.

No instrument or equipment used in space experiments aboard Shenzhou VI was taken out Wednesday at the scene.

Yuan Jiajun, president of the academy, said researchers were studying the large quantity of data obtained during the mission.

The return capsule spacecraft was moved to Beijing on Tuesday after it landed safely with astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng in central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region early on Monday.

Source: China Daily