Olympic commitment held aloft in space
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-20 05:30

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 yesterday 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.

(China Daily 10/20/2005 page1)