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.