Russia to carry Olympic Torch to outerspace ahead of 2014 Winter Games

The Olympic Torch for the 2014 Winter Olympics is set to be carried into the outer space by cosmonauts, according to hosts Russia's Sochi Olympic Committee.

Russia will host the Winter Olympic Games in February 2014, CBS News reports.

Announcing the mission via Twitter, president of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing Committee Dmitry Chernyshenko said that Russia's ambition to conquer space for the first time ever in the history of Olympic Games would become a reality when Sochi's Torch Relay reaches the outer space.

The report further said that Expedition 38 crew members, including Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, will carry the torch to the International Space Station aboard flight Soyuz TMA-11M.

Stating that an imitation flame will replace the official flame during the spaceflight, because having an open flame on a spaceship would be dangerous, Chernyshenko said that after the mission, the torch would be used to light the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony of the Games on February 7, 2014.