Olympic torch flies into space, docks ISS

A Russian, an American and a Japanese brought the Olympic torch into space. A Soyuz spacecraft blasted off from the launch pad on Baikonur space port on November 7 and flew in the direction of the International Space Station.

The valuable Olympic cargo is accompanied by Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio, and an astronaut of the Japanese Space Agency Koichi Wakata.

During the flight, the ship will have a shorter program: a total of six hours and four orbits, and then docking.

The Olympic relay in outer space will then be passed on to Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky. Both are preparing for their mission. To comply with the tradition, the cosmonauts will spend outside the station about four hours. So we can say that the space relay will be no different than the one on earth. The torch will not be burning, though.