Russian Cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Nov. 9, displaying the Olympic torch that will light the Olympic flame in Sochi, Russia, on Feb. 7, 2014. Watch the video…
The torch was delivered to the station Nov. 7 by three new residents of the station and they returned to Earth Nov. 11 with three departing crew members to resume its role in the Olympic torch relay that began in Olympia, Greece, last month.
Expedition 37 Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy opened the hatch to the Pirs docking compartment at 9:34 a.m. EST and floated outside to begin a photo opportunity with the unlit torch.
An icon of international cooperation through sports competition, the Olympic torch arrived at the space station Thursday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new crew members – Expedition 38 Flight Engineers Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata. On Sunday, the torch will return to Earth aboard another Soyuz spacecraft vehicle along with Expedition 37 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano.
The spacewalk was a high-flying extension of a relay that will culminate with the torch being used to light the Olympic flame at the Feb. 7 opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
After Kotov and Ryazanskiy completed their photo and video session with the torch outside the station, they stowed it back inside the airlock and proceeded with the remainder of their chores 260 miles above the Earth.
source NASA
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