2014 Olympic Torch To Be Carried In Space

The Winter Olympics are set to begin in 2014, which means the Olympic torch will once again be carried around the world before it finally lands in the Olympic Stadium in Russia to mark the beginning of the sporting event. However, the torch will take a trip to space where it will be taken on a spacewalk for the first time ever.

Two cosmonauts will be making the spacewalk along with the Olympic torch in order to celebrate the games that will be taking place in Russia. The torch walk is scheduled to begin on October 7 this year, and it will span 123 days and travel more than 34,000 miles. The torch will also be carried by 14,000 different people, which would be a record for Olympic torch walks.

The deputy head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Vitaly Davydov, said that the torch that will be carried to space will be "the same as the torch at the Olympics," although the torch will not be lit on its way to space, since open flames are prohibited from being carried inside a spaceship while traveling to the ISS.

The spacewalk with the torch is set to take place in November, and it's expected to return back to Earth on November 12. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky are expected to perform the space walk with the torch. Other places that the torch is scheduled to go to is Mount Elbrus (the highest peak of Europe), the bottom of Lake Baikal, and the North Pole.

[via Russian Times]