Olympic torch blasts into space for 1st spacewalk

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Olympic torch blasts into space for 1st spacewalk
By LAURA MILLS (Associated Press) 5 hours ago AP - Sports



MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian rocket soared into the cosmos Thursday carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts to the International Space Station ahead of the first-ever spacewalk for the symbol of peace.

Video streamed by the U.S. space agency NASA reported a flawless docking with the space station about six hours after the craft blasted off from Russia's manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The unlit torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi is to be taken on a spacewalk Saturday, then return to Earth on Monday (late Sunday EST) with three departing space station astronauts.

The arriving crew members Thursday were Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan.

Once the newcomers enter the space station following a long hatch-opening process, the orbiting lab will have nine people aboard for the first time since 2009. Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia, NASA's Karen Nyberg and Italian Luca Parmitano are the crew scheduled to return to Earth with the torch via a Monday landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

The Olympic torch will not burn onboard the space outpost because lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk.

The Olympic torch was taken aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis in 1996 for the Atlanta Summer Olympics, but this is the first it time it will be taken outside a spacecraft.

''It's a great pleasure and responsibility getting to work with this symbol of peace,'' Tyurin told journalists on Wednesday before the launch.

Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy will take the torch out of the space station on Saturday while American Michael Hopkins remains inside.

The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on Oct. 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. For most of the 65,000-kilometer (39,000-mile) route across Russia, it will travel by plane, train, car and even reindeer sleigh.

Some 14,000 torch bearers are taking part in the relay that stops at more than 130 cities and towns.

Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. In early February, it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe.

The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until Feb. 23.


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Olympic Torch Launches Into Orbit with New Space Station Crew
SPACE.com
By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor 12 hours ago
 





A torch for the 2014 Sochi Olympics lifted off for the International Space Station on Wednesday night (Nov. 6), accompanied by three new crewmembers for the orbiting outpost.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched on Russia's Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their Soyuz FG rocket climbed spaceward at 11:14 p.m. EST (0414 GMT; 10:14 a.m. Kazakh local time Nov. 7), marking the start of the crew's four-orbit, six-hour journey to the station.

The booster and its launch pad was specially-outfitted for this flight to celebrate the torch being aboard and the 22nd Winter Games being hosted in Sochi, Russia. The rocket and the protective shroud shielding the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft were decorated with Olympic-inspired graphics. The launch pad was equipped with metal Olympic rings.[See more launch photos for the space-bound Olympic torch]

"The Olympic torch, in the history of mankind, is probably the most ancient symbol of peace," Tyurin said during a pre-launch press conference. "It is a great pleasure and it is a great responsibility we are to work with this symbol of peace."

"I think it's great that we're bringing this symbol [of peace] up to the space station, which is another representation of international cooperation," Mastracchio added. "It is great that we can tie these two events, the Olympics and the International Space Station. We are happy to be a small part of it."



Expedition 38 Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, left


The unlit torch and the three crewmembers are expected to dock at the space station at 5:31 a.m. EST (1031 GMT) Thursday (Nov. 7).

About two hours later, the hatches between Soyuz TMA-11M and the station will be opened. Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata will be greeted by Expedition 37 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA flight engineer Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, who have been aboard the orbiting lab since late May, as well as Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky of Roscosmos and NASA's Mike Hopkins, who arrived at the space station in September.

This will be the first time since October 2009 that nine people have served together aboard the station without a space shuttle being docked to the complex. Normally, the outgoing crew — in this situation, Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano — would have already left for Earth, but the schedule was adjusted to facilitate the handoff of the Olympic torch.


Orbital Olympic relay

The aluminum red and silver torch, which is similar to the 14,000 others being used in the traditional terrestrial relay now crossing Russia but for the addition of an extra tether, is the third Olympic torch to fly in space. Previous torches flew on the space shuttle in 1996 and 2000, with the latter even coming aboard the International Space Station.



Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, Expedition 38 Soyuz commander, holds the Olympic torch


The 2014 Sochi Olympics torch will still set a first as it is taken outside on a spacewalk. The extravehicular activity (EVA) is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) on Saturday (Nov. 9).

Expedition 38 commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazansky will carry the torch with them on their outing, during which video and photographs will document the Olympic icon floating above the Earth.

The torch will then be brought back inside and returned to Earth on Sunday (Nov. 10), landing on board Soyuz TMA-09M with Yurchikhin, Nyberg, Parmitano.

Three months later, the space-flown torch will enter Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi to begin the Winter Games on Feb. 7, 2014.


Expedition 38/39

Meanwhile, Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata will be on the space station through May 2014.

The trio are all veterans of spaceflight. Expedition 38/39 is Tyurin's third long-duration mission and his second stay aboard the International Space Station. Mastracchio and Wakata have each flown to space three times before.

"You're probably one of the most experienced crews that we've flown, so I cannot think of a better crew to represent the countries who built and operate the largest peacetime project in human history," NASA's space station program manager Michael Suffredini told the crew.

Wakata will become the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station when he takes the lead of ISS Expedition 39 beginning in March.

In addition to participating in the Olympic relay, the three will conduct hundreds of science experiments and oversee the arrival and departure of as many as seven resupply spacecraft, including three Russian Progress vehicles and both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences U.S. commercial cargo freighters.


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Russia launches Sochi Olympic torch into space
7 hours ago Relaxnews



Russia launches Sochi Olympic torch into space



Russia on Thursday launched into space a trio of Russian, Japanese and US astronauts carrying an unlit Olympic torch that will for the first time be taken on a spacewalk to mark the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

The Soyuz-FG rocket and Soyuz-TMA capsule, emblazoned with the symbols of the Sochi Games and the Olympic rings, blasted off for the International Space Station (ISS) from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"The Soyuz FG rocket and the Soyuz-TMA capsule launched successfully from Baikonur cosmodrome at 8:14 am Moscow time (0414 GMT)," Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement.

NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio earlier climbed the steps into the capsule carrying the Olympic torch, along with his fellow spacemen, Russia's Mikhail Tyurin and Japan's Koichi Wakata.

In an unprecedented move, two of the Russian cosmonauts who are already on board the ISS are set to take the torch on a space walk from 1430 GMT on Saturday aimed at promoting the Sochi Games.

Russian officials have made it clear that the torch will remain unlit at all times for safety reasons.

"Taking the Olympic torch to space -- only we are capable of that," boasted a presenter on state-owned Rossiya-2 television.

In fact the Olympic torch was carried into space ahead of the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in Atlanta and Sydney but has never before been taken on a spacewalk.

However, Russia's efforts to promote the Sochi Games as a symbol of its post-Soviet transformation have been tarnished by rows over a law seen as anti-gay as well as allegations of corruption in the vast construction needed for the event.


Polar bear Sochi talisman

The rocket decorated with the mainly blue Olympic logo and the words Sochi 2014 blasted off into clear skies from the Kazakh steppe on a sunny Autumn morning.

Minutes later, the initial booster rocket delivered the astronauts into orbit. The capsule carrying the astronauts is due to dock with the ISS at 1431 Moscow time (1031 GMT).

On the ISS, they will join six incumbent crew, station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia and flight engineers Karen Nyberg of NASA, Italy's Luca Parmitano, Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA's Mike Hopkins and Russian Sergei Ryazansky.

Their talisman hanging inside the capsule was a toy polar bear, one of the symbols of the Sochi games, Russian television showed. The toy will be used as an indicator of weightlessness.

The launch was also broadcast live on a big screen to thousands of people watching in New York's Times Square, according to NASA.

After a brief stay on the ISS, the torch will then be taken back to Earth by the three astronauts now finishing their five-and-a-half-month mission on the ISS. They are due to touch down in Kazakhstan on Monday at 0250 GMT.

The same torch will later be used to light the Olympic flame at the Fisht stadium in Sochi for the opening ceremony of the Games on February 7.

In a spectacular torch relay, Russia last month took a lit Olympic torch to the North Pole on a nuclear-powered icebreaker.

The high-profile Olympics mission comes as Russia seeks to prove that its mostly Soviet-designed systems are reliable enough to continue humans' conquest of space.

The 2011 retirement of the US Space Shuttle programme made the Soyuz -- whose basic principles are little changed since the first manned spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 -- the world's last remaining manned link with the ISS.

But Russia has been recently blighted by a string of space failures that include the July 2 explosion shortly after take-off from Baikonur of an unmanned Proton-M rocket.

In an apparent response to the problems, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on October 10 fired the head of the state space agency Roscomos, Vladimir Popovkin, after just two-and-a-half years in the job.

Oleg Ostapenko, previously deputy defence minister, was appointed the new Roscosmos chief.


http://news.yahoo.com/russia-launches-sochi-olympic-torch-space-095842269.html

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Russian Soyuz rocket flies Olympic torch to space station
Reuters
By Alissa de Carbonnel 9 hours ago



BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A three-man crew took the Olympic torch to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket on Thursday, ready to send it on its first space walk in a showcase for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

An onboard camera showed Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata pumping the air with his fist as the Soyuz rocket, painted with snowflake patterns, lifted off from the Russian-rented Baikonur launch facility on a crisp, clear morning on the Kazakh steppe.

After a six-hour trip to the station, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin crawled through a hatch and handed the unlit torch to his beaming countryman on board, Fyodor Yurchikhin.

"It was great ride and we're happy to be here," said U.S. astronaut Rick Mastracchio, who traveled with Tyurin and Wakata, in a videolink with relatives and space officials 250 miles below back on Earth.

Inspired by the Firebird of Russian folklore, the meter-long, red-and-silver torch weighs almost 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs) on Earth, but it floated lazily in zero gravity as Tyurin slowly twirled it in the weightlessness of the orbital outpost.

"It's just an outstanding day and a spectacular launch," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, told Reuters at Baikonur.

By tradition, a good-luck charm usually hangs above Soyuz crews when they lift off. Wakata, Tyurin and Mastracchio sat beneath a stuffed polar bear in a blue scarf, a mascot of the first Olympics Russia has hosted since the Soviet era.

The space flight is part of what will be the longest torch relay before a Winter Olympics that President Vladimir Putin hopes will burnish Russia's international image.


RUSSIA'S MIGHT

"This is a way to show the world what Russia is made of," Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister Putin put in charge of planning the Olympics, said at Baikonur. "We need to put our country, its might and its economic achievements on display."



The Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft, emblazoned with the Sochi 2014 logo and a blue-and-white snowflake pattern


For safety reasons, the torch will not be lit in what could prove a relief for Russia - the flame has gone out several times since Putin started the relay in Moscow's Red Square on October 6.

On Saturday, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky will take the torch outside the station for a space walk. The Olympic torch has gone on voyages aboard spacecraft twice before, in 1996 and 2000, but it has never been taken into open space.

Russian engineers have equipped the torch with a tether to keep it from floating out of the cosmonauts' grip.

As part of its 65,000-km (40,000-mile) relay, the torch has traveled to the North Pole on an atomic-powered ice breaker. It has still to go to the peak of Europe's highest mountain, Mount Elbrus, and the depths of Siberia's Lake Baikal before reaching Sochi on the Black Sea for the start of the Games on February 7.

The trio's arrival at the station, a $100 billion project of 15 nations, briefly swelled its crew to nine - the most on board the outpost since the last U.S. shuttle mission in 2011.

The torch will return to Earth on November 11 with Yurchikhin, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg.


http://news.yahoo.com/russian-rocket-takes-sochi-olympic-torch-space-041855046--sector.html

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Olympic torch blasts into space for 1st spacewalk
Associated Press
By LAURA MILLS 5 hours ago



In this image made from video provided by NASA, cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, International Space Station commander, holds the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics torch brought aboard by fellow cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin as Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio of the United States and Koichi Wakata of Japan enter the station on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew plans to carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk. (AP Photo/NASA)




MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian rocket soared into the cosmos Thursday carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts to the International Space Station ahead of the first-ever spacewalk for the symbol of peace.

Video streamed by the U.S. space agency NASA reported a flawless docking with the space station about six hours after the craft blasted off from Russia's manned space facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The unlit torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi is to be taken on a spacewalk Saturday, then return to Earth on Monday (late Sunday EST) with three departing space station astronauts.

The arriving crew members Thursday were Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan.

Now that the newcomers have entered the space station following a long hatch-opening process, the orbiting lab has nine people aboard for the first time since 2009. Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia, NASA's Karen Nyberg, and Italian Luca Parmitano are the crew scheduled to return to Earth with the torch via a Monday landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

The Olympic torch will not burn onboard the space outpost because lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk.



The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)


The Olympic torch was taken aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis in 1996 for the Atlanta Summer Olympics, but this is the first it time it will be taken outside a spacecraft.

"It's a great pleasure and responsibility getting to work with this symbol of peace," Tyurin told journalists on Wednesday before the launch.

Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy will take the torch out of the space station on Saturday while American Michael Hopkins remains inside.

The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on Oct. 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. For most of the 65,000-kilometer (39,000-mile) route across Russia, it will travel by plane, train, car and even reindeer sleigh.

Some 14,000 torch bearers are taking part in the relay that stops at more than 130 cities and towns.

Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. In early February, it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe.

The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until Feb. 23.



Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, center, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, bottom and U.S. astronaut Rick Mastracchio, above, crew members of the next mission to the International Space Station, board a spacecraft prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)



The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)



The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The rocket carrying the Olympic flame successfully blasted off Thursday from earth ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)



Soyuz-FG rocket is seen prior to the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew of the space craft will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)



Soyuz-FG rocket is seen prior to the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew of space craft will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)



Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, center, a crew member of the next mission to the International Space Station, smiles as he boards a spacecraft prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket as a Russian official caries an Olympic torch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)



Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, center, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, bottom and U.S. astronaut Rick Mastracchio, crew members of the next mission to the International Space Station, pose with an Olympic torch prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)



From left: Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Rick Mastracchio, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, walk to a bus as Russian cosmonaut Valery Korzun carries an Olympic torch prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2013. The crew will deliver Olympic torch to space as part of the ongoing Olympic torch relay. The torch will be brought back along with the station's current crew. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, Pool)


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