A leg of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch relay has been scheduled for two cosmonauts outside of the International Space Station (ISS) – in space.
Organizers announced Monday that the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has partnered with Sochi 2014 and is currently training cosmonauts Sergei Ryazansky and Oleg Kotov for a mission to commence November 7 when Soyuz TMA-11M lifts off carrying the torch to the ISS.
Soyuz Rocket Captain Mikhail Tyurin took possession of the torch in a signing ceremony Monday; he’ll be responsible for handing it off to the ISS Cosmonauts.
This will be the first time the Olympic torch will be carried in open space, however for safety reasons, it is not planned to light the torch.
“Nobody has done this before. The spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts with the Sochi 2014 Olympic torch will be an historic moment in the history of the Olympic Torch Relay,” Sochi 2014 Chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said.
“I want to thank the Federal Space Agency for its support which will enable us to take the Sochi 2014 Olympic Torch Relay to the final frontier.”
To help schedule the space walk, Roscosmos officials pulled back the scheduled launch of the TMA-11M from November 25 to November 7. The historic walk will occur before the torch is scheduled to return to Earth on the departing Soyuz TMA-09M on November 11 with cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin.
Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov first proposed these plans in 2011 and Chernyshenko confirmed the plan, as reported by GamesBids.com, at a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia in May.
In 2000, a replica of the Olympic Relay Rorch was carried aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis by Australian Astronaut Andy Thomas and was later brought to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games – however, no space walk was conducted.
The Sochi 2014 Torch Relay will be the longest in the history of the Winter Olympics and the longest relay to take place exclusively within the territory of the host country – excluding the ISS segment. It will be carried by 14,000 torchbearers through 2,900 towns and cities in all 83 of Russia’s regions, beginning October 7, 2013.
