ISS Cosmonauts EVA: Olympic Torch forms part of Russian Space stunt

Spacewalker Oleg Kotov is seen with the Olympic torch outside the International Space Station, Nov. 9, 2013.

Credit: NASA TV

Olympic history unfolded outside the International Space Station Saturday morning (Nov. 9) as two Russian cosmonauts carried an unlit Olympic torch on a symbolic spacewalk relay for the 2014 Games.

Emerging from the orbital outpost at 9:34 a.m. EST (1434 GMT) through a hatch on the Pirs docking module, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy with Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos began the planned six-hour excursion by posing with the torch for an unprecedented photo opp.

"We will take a picture of it with the space station in the background, with the Earth in the background, and we will try to make sure that we see Russia, and maybe Sochi where the Olympic Games will take place," Kotov said of the torch relay in a NASA interview.

"I think these will be very interesting videos and pictures that will be used to promote the Olympic Games."

"We will be part of this whole chain, part of this wonderful relay of the Olympic torch," Ryazanskiy said.

"The most interesting part here is that our relatives, our families, will be participating in this relay as well. My wife and Oleg Kotov's daughter on Earth will be participating in the relay," the 38-year-old Expedition 37/38 flight engineer said.

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