At the 7th round of circling the earth, Shenzhou V manned spacecraft was flying over Africa.

　　At 18:31, October 15, Beijing Time, Shen Jingsong, General Controller of Beijing Spaceflight Command and Control Center was calling the astronaut Yang Liwei in Shenzhou V spacecraft: "Shenzhou V, this is Beijing calling". Through the "Yuanwang" III tracking ship, the electric wave was sent to the spacecraft.

　　"Shenzhou V received!"

　　"Please show the national flag and flag of the UN!"

　　"Shenzhou V understand!"

　　In the cabin, Yang Liwei fetched out the red national flag and the blue UN flag and embraced them before his chest.

　　This is a meaningful scene: in front of the astronaut, the national flag and the UN flag were enhancing each other's beauty. The splendid golden stars are shining the silver olive branch, just like declaring to the world: Hallow, universe! China has come for peace! And hallow, world! China has come for peace!

　　In the face of the video camera, Yang said sonorously in English: "Make use of the outer space peacefully and benefit for all mankind."

　　According to a person involved in China's manned spaceflight engineering, the national flag that the astronaut Yang showed has the same size as the UN flag: 15 cm in length and 10 cm in width and 10 g in weight, both of them were made of nylon. On September 4, Mr. Costa, Executive Director of the Vienna Office of UN held a ceremony to present the UN flag to China's ambassador to Vienna, Zhang Yan, on behalf of the Secretary-General of the UN Annan. The ambassador delivered the flag to personnel from China Manned Spaceflight Engineering Office on site.

　　It is said that ever since the world started carrying out manned spaceflight activities, the space shuttle from the U.S, the spacecrafts from the former Soviet Union and Russia have carried the UN flag for four times, China is the third country in carrying the UN flag and also the first one to carry the UN flag in first manned flight. Carrying the UN flag with Shenzhou V shows that the Chinese government values the cooperation with UN on the peaceful utilization of the outer space and its support of the UN objectives and principles. At the same time, it also shows the Chinese government's resolution on peaceful utilization of the outer space and serving for the humanity.

　　It is said that the Shenzhou V manned spacecraft also carried a undisplayed big-size UN flag, with a length of 180cm and width of 120 cm and weight of 330 g. After the accomplishment of the first manned spacecraft flight task, the two UN flags will be sent back to the UN.

　　By Liu Cheng, Liu Bing and Wu Tianmin