The torch will be with Russian Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Japan's Koichi Wakata on thursday where they will blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome which Moscow rents. 

The torch will not be lit for safety reasons. Tyurin will hand the torch to fellow cosmonauts Oleg kotov and Sergei, who will be in the orbiting station on saturday where they will go for a space walk.

This will be the third time the Olympic torch carried into the space. In 1996 and 2000, It was carried but, it was never taken out of SpaceShip

"Our goal here is to make it look spectacular," Kotov told reporters before his own mission began.

The torch will be brought back to Earth by Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, American astronaut Karen Nyberg and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano.

 

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