Sochi Olympic torch reaches space station Putin's Sochi Olympics hopes and realities Rocket carrying Olympic torch docks with space station UPDATE 1-Russian Soyuz rocket flies Olympic torch to space station Going All Out at Sochi, but What Next? Watch live: Olympic torch docks at International Space Station Olympic Torch Blasts Into Space Ahead of Games Soyuz Rocket Carrying Sochi Olympic Torch Docks With ISS for Spacewalk MOSCOW, November 7-- A rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. NASA Live TV showed the rocket, emblazoned with the pale blue Sochi 2014 logo, launching from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome on a clear morning in Kazakhstan. The torch will make its way to the International Space Station before being taken into space itself -- making it the Olympic flame's first spacewalk in history. Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan beamed at the crowd as they carried the lit torch aboard the Soyuz rocket. For safety reasons, the torch will not burn when it's onboard the space outpost. Lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk. The Olympic torch has flown into space once before -- in 1996 aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for the Atlanta Summer Olympics -- but will be taken outside the spacecraft for the first time in history. "It's a great pleasure and responsibility getting to work with this symbol of peace," Tyurin told journalists on Wednesday ahead of the launch. The torch will remain in space for five days. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are currently manning the International Space Station, will take the flame for a spacewalk on Saturday, before it is returned to earth by three astronauts on Monday. The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on Oct. 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. For most of the 65,000-kilometer (39,000-mile) route, the flame will travel by plane, train, car and even reindeer sleigh, but 14,000 torch bearers are taking part in the relay that stops at more than 130 cities and towns. Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, and in February it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until Feb. 23. Olympic torch flies to International Space Station Olympic flame blasts off for its first ever spacewalk UN General Assembly calls for global truce during Sochi Games Olympic torch blasts into space before Games Olympic torch flies to International Space Station Olympic Torch Blasts Off Into Space Russian Soyuz spacecraft with Olympic torch launches into orbit Olympic torch blasts into space before Games Soyuz carries Sochi Winter Olympic torch to Intl Space Station ahead of first torch spacewalk Sochi chief: Rainbows are welcome at Winter Olympics Russia to take Olympic torch into space IOC chief opposes Olympic boycott calls Russia fired up about Olympic torch 'stunt' on crowded space station OLYMPICS-Russia struggles to keep Olympic torch burning Sochi 2014: Winter Olympics lessons from Lillehammer Putin's Olympian Construction Zone olympic torch,Baikonur space center,Sochi Olympics,Rick Mastracchio,Koichi Wakata,Mikhail Tyurin,Kazakhstan,Russia,Sochi,Sochi 2014,Olympic torch blasts,Olympic torch flies,Russian Soyuz spacecraft,Sochi Olympic torch,Putin's Sochi Olympics,space station,Russian Soyuz rocket flies,Moscow,IOC chief,Olympic torch burning,Olympic torch stunt,NASA Live TV,Sochi 2014 logo,International Space Station,Soyuz rocket,Olympic torch to space station,Winter Olympics,Putin Olympian Construction Zone,Olympic flame blasts

• published: 07 Nov 2013
• views: 4