NASA Expedition 38 Crew With Russian Olympic Torch

Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), left, Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA, right, smile and wave as they hold an Olympic torch that will be flown with them to the International Space Station.

The picture shows them acknowledging the photographers during a press conference held Wed., Nov. 6, at the Cosmonaut hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. 

On Sat., Nov. 9, it is planned that the Olympic torch will be carried on a spacewalk outside the space station. 

The torch, which returns to Earth aboard another Soyuz on Sun., Nov. 10 with Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, will light the flame at the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

Launch of the Soyuz rocket carrying the Expedition 38 trio is scheduled for 11:14 p.m. EST Wed., Nov. 6 (10:14 a.m. Kazakh time, Nov. 7) and will send Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata on a six-month mission aboard the space station. 

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls