MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti) – Two Russian cosmonauts ventured Saturday outside the International Space Station taking a symbolic Olympic torch on a first spacewalk in history.
The airlock on the Pirs module of the ISS opened at about 06:40 pm Moscow time (14:40 GMT) allowing Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky to float out from the station for an hour-long photo session with the unlit torch.
Rossiya 24 television and NASA Live TV are showing one of the most memorable events in history in a live broadcast from the ISS.
According to commentators, the Olympic symbol is moving around the Earth with a speed of about 8 kilometers per second. Cosmonauts carefully pass the torch to one another, making sure that the rarity item is safely secured to their spacesuits.
The torch will remain at the orbital station for five days. It is due to be brought back to Earth by Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano, who will depart the ISS on board the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft on November 11.
Down on Earth, the Olympic flame arrived in Sakha's capital city of Yakutsk - 4,900 kilometers (3,100 miles) east of Moscow – where it will be transported by dog and reindeer sleighs.
The torch relay for the February 7-23 Sochi Games started on Moscow’s Red Square in Moscow on October 7. The four-month event takes in all of Russia's 83 regions on its 56,000-kilometer (35,440 mile) trip, making it the longest in the history of the Olympics.
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