Olympic Torch Goes on Spacewalk

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VIDEO: Russian cosmonauts carry unlit Sochi torch into open space through hatch of International Space Station

Two Russian cosmonauts took the Olympic torch on an historic spacewalk Saturday.

NASA Live TV showed cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky carrying the unlit torch through the hatch of the International Space Station and into open space before the two men took turns posing with it.

This is the first time an Olympic torch has been carried outside a spacecraft. It was previously taken aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

The torch was launched into space Thursday from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and will return to Earth with a three-man crew on Monday.

The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame when the 2014 games begin on Feb. 7 in Sochi, Russia.