(From front) Astronauts Mikhail Tyurin, Koichi Wakata and Rick Mastracchio pose with the Sochi Olympic torch prior to blast off to the International Space Station on Thursday. Photo: AFP

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 from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the International Space Station (ISS) at 8:14 am (Moscow time).

The Soyuz-TMA capsule carrying NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Russia's Mikhail Tyurin and Japan's Koichi Wakata then docked with the ISS slightly ahead of schedule after four orbits of the Earth just over six hours later, the Russian space agency Roscomos said.

In an unprecedented move, two of the Russian cosmonauts who are already on board the ISS are set to take the torch on a spacewalk 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.

The cosmonauts will hold a photo session in open space with the torch, which will be tethered with a special strap, and then carry out essential work. The torch will spend more than five hours outside the ISS.

The Olympic torch was carried into space ahead of the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games 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.

On the ISS, the newly arrived astronauts joined 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.

After a brief stay on the ISS, the torch will then be taken back to Earth by the three astronauts now finishing their 5.5-month mission on the ISS. They are due to touch down in Kazakhstan on Monday.

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.

AFP - Global Times