Video: Sochi 2014 Olympic torch travels into space aboard Russian Soyuz rocket The torch is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will be taken into space on the Olympic flame's first spacewalk in history. For safety reasons, the torch will not burn when it's on-board the space station as lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The Olympic torch has flown into space once before - in 1996 aboard the US space shuttle Atlantis for the Atlanta Summer Olympics - but will be taken outside the spacecraft for the first time in history. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are currently manning the International Space Station, will take the flame for a spacewalk on Saturday, before it is returned to earth by three astronauts on Monday. The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on October 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on February 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until February 23.