As revealed on insidethegames in July 2011, the Organising Committee has always been keen on the idea of sending an Olympic Torch into space and this latest news from the deputy head of Russian Federal Space Agency confirms that planning is now underway for the groundbreaking event.

"It will be the same as the Torch at the Olympics," Vitaly Davydov told the Interfax news agency.

He added that the space walk ceremony, which will see the Torch go into orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS), "had already been confirmed" with the country's Olympic Committee, but gave no further details about the event.

It is understood, however, that the route could even see the Torch - which will not be lit as naked flames are prohibited inside a spaceship going to the ISS - carried outside the station, into space when Russian astronauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky perform the space walk in November.


The Torch is then due to return to Earth on a manned flight landing on November 12.

The Sochi 2014 Winter Games Torch Relay, which is due to begin on October 7, will take the Olympic Flame on a marathon 65,000-kilometre, 123-day journey encompassing Kaliningrad in the west and Vladivostok in the east.

It will travel through all 83 Russian regions, visiting 2,900 towns and settlements and passing through the hands of some 14,000 Torchbearers, and as well as the space walk will see the Torch climb Mount Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain, and journey to the bottom of Baikal, the world's deepest lake.

Sochi 2014 said the route was designed to "try and ensure that 90 per cent of Russia's population will be within an hour of the Relay at some stage" before it arrives in the Olympic Park for the Opening Ceremony on February 7 next year.

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