2014 Sochi Olympic torch to be carried into outer space

The 2014 Sochi Olympic torch is set for a spacewalk

Russia’s Gagarin cosmonaut training centre has announced that Olympic torch will be sent into outer space for the first time ever on 9th November.

The torch will be held during a spacewalk departing from the International Space Station (ISS), Spanish based newspaper Marca reports.

Russian astronauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky will carry the torch, which will be used in Sochi Winter Games, scheduled to be held in February 2014.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, the president of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, was quoted as saying, “The same torch that will go to outer space will be used to light the Olympic Cauldron for the Sochi Olympic Flame.”

The torch will be taken into orbit by a manned Rusian spacecraft named Soyuz TMA-11M, and after the spacewalk, it will be brought back to Earth by the Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.

The organising committee also revealed its plans to take the torch to Mount Elbrus, which is the highest peak in Russia, and to Lake Baikal – the deepest lake on Earth.

From 7th October onwards, around 14,000 torchbearers will carry the Olympic torch, covering the distance of thousands of kilometres, before it is finally taken back in the Black Sea spa resort.

The torch’s route has been planned in such a way that it will undertake the journey through many areas in European Russia, Caucasia and Siberia. The tour is planned to pay tribute to hosts Russia – the largest country in the world.

Sochi is first Russian city to host events of such magnitude since Moscow hosted the Summer Games in 1980.