Sochi Olympics torch to travel in space

MOSCOW - A Winter Olympics-2014 torch will be launched to space this fall as a part of its relay to Sochi, Russian sports and space officials said Monday.

"Our ambition to conquer space first time ever in the Olympic history becomes reality," Sochi steering committee's chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said in his Twitter account.

Chernyshenko said the same torch will light the Olympic flame at the Opening Ceremony on February 7, 2014.

Vladimir Popovkin, chief of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, said the torch would launch from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station on November 7.

Roscosmos and the Sochi-2014 steering committee signed an agreement Monday to send the torch to the orbit. For safety reasons, the torch will remain unlit during that segment of its 65,000-km relay.

"We've got a rocket fueled by oxygen and kerosene, so there are basic safety rules. There can't be any naked flames," Popovkin told reporters.

Russian Mikhail Tyurin, U.S. Richard Mastracchio and Japanese Koichi Wakata will accompany the torch in a Soyuz spacecraft on its way to ISS, Popovkin added.

While onboard, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazan will take the torch on a spacewalk.