OLYMPICS. Two Russian cosmonauts floated out of the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday with the unlit torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi - a first in the history of the Games. The torch has been equipped with a special tether to keep it from floating away during the spacewalk.

Photo: RIA Novosti

Expedition 37 flight engineers, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, were participating in photo and video sessions with the torch outside the station, and then would then stow it back inside the airlock before continuing their six-hour spacewalk.

Ahead of the spacewalk, Kotov said: "We will do our best to make a beautiful picture so that the whole country and the whole world could see the torch outside the station against the background of the Earth".

Photo: Screenshot by Vesti.ru

The torch arrived at the ISS on Thursday after a six-hour flight. It was not lit for safety reasons. It is to be brought back to Earth on November 11. The Games open on February 7.

Radio The Voice of Russia
voiceofrussia.com / 9 November, 2013, 18:49

Olympic torch: only stars are higher

A historic event take place. The Olympic torch has taken part in a spacewalk. The ISS's astronauts continued the Olympic torch relay in space. The main symbol of the Sochi Olympics was handed over in orbit of the Earth.

The view from Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy's helmet camera as Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov waves the Olympic torch outside the International Space Station during Saturday's spacewalk. Image Credit: NASA TV

Footage of these unique moments was aired all over the globe. A hatch on the Rassvet Mini-Research Module at the ISS opens and Russian astronaut Oleg Kotov stepped into space carrying the Olympic torch. He waves it, greeting all the peoples of the planet Earth and hands it over to flight engineer Sergei Ryazansky. The moment is recorded by a video camera attached to the station. The Olympic torch was in outer space for about an hour. Astronauts passed it to each other several times to take pictures against the ISS and Earth. Then the torch was brought back to the station and the astronauts continued to work.

To take the Olympic torch on a spacewalk is a difficult operation from a technical point of view. Every move is scheduled to the second. Every step is controlled from Earth by the Mission Control Center in Korolyov, Russia.

During a spacewalk the torch was safely tethered by a rope as one of the main concerns was not to lose the 2014 Winter Games symbol, Oleg Kotov says.

"Any object, equipment or tool taken out into space must be safely attached because there is a strong probability of losing it. If you let go of it, it will fly away. I didn't want that to happen with the Olympic torch," he adds.

Another peculiarity with the launching of the Olympic torch into space is that it could not be lit due to safety concerns.

On February 7, 2014, during the opening ceremony of the XXII Olympic Games the Olympic cauldron will be lit by that same torch which will return to Earth as soon as Monday. Sochi-2014 organizing committee representatives will take it from the captain of the ISS, Fyodor Yurchikhin, near the Soyuz space capsule.

Radio The Voice of Russia
voiceofrussia.com / 10 November 2013, 15:42