DHAKA: A Soyuz rocket carrying the torch for the Sochi Winter Olympics has docked with the International Space Station, as part of efforts to showcase next year’s games in Russia.

On Saturday, two Russian cosmonauts will take it on a historic first spacewalk. The torch will not be lit.

The event is part of a rebranding exercise by Russia, designed to portray it as a strong, modern country, says the BBC.

The rocket left Earth at 04:14:25 GMT.

It blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, crewed by three cosmonauts, Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata from Japan.

The Olympic symbol will be handed over to fellow cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky, who are already on the orbiting station, when they go on the spacewalk on Saturday.

‘Our goal here is to make it look spectacular,’ Kotov said earlier.

‘We’d like to showcase our Olympic torch in space. We will try to do it in a beautiful manner. Millions of people will see it live on TV and they will see the station and see how we work.’

BDST: 2043 HRS, NOV 07, 2013
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