The University of Idaho reached new heights as astronaut Steve Swanson carried its flag into space.

Swanson took the UI flag on board the space shuttle Discovery on March 15 in honor of his nephew Greg, a graduate student at the university.

“He thought it would be nice to take up the U of I flag to promote space exploration,” said Greg Swanson, a UI electrical engineering graduate student.

Greg is nominated as the NASA International Year of Astronomy student ambassador.

“It’s a long name that just means I promote NASA and everything they do,” Swanson said.

Greg said he thinks taking the flag into space will help promote space exploration within the community.

Angela Farnham-Banks, the Idaho Space Grant Consortium communications assistant, said she hopes it will draw more attention to the school.

“I think it’s going to be pretty fun for people to be able to see this,” she said.

Farnham-Banks said she hopes interested students will be drawn to the university because the event shows students they can be involved in the national program closer to home.

The flag will eventually be presented to the university, but no official date has been set, said Becky Highfill, the Idaho Space Grant Consortium program coordinator.

“We are not exactly sure,” she said. “We are going to have to wait until the astronauts get back to plan it.” The space mission has been successful so far. Greg said his uncle is the lead space walk for the mission, so he oversees everything when they are outside of the space station.

“They just did their last space walk today,” Greg said.