The start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia

 

The start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

One small step for man, one giant leap for the Olympic torch! Sochi 2014 flame heads in to space on the latest leg of the Russian relay The Sochi 2014 Olympic torch was launched into space on Thursday on board a Soyuz TMA-11M rocket. Exactly one month since the start of its journey across Russia, the torch took off on the rocket which blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome. On arrival at the International Space Station, the commander of the ship, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, will pass the torch to Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky, who will take it on a spacewalk on Saturday before it returns to Earth two days later. VIDEO Scroll down to watch the Olympic torch heading into space on the last leg of the Russian relay Rocket ready: Expedition 38 Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos holds the Olympic torch alongside flight engineers Koichi Wakata and Rick Mastracchio The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan Relay: The astronauts bid farewell before taking off with the Olympic torch on a four-day voyage Sochi flame heads in to space on the latest leg of the Russian... Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi 2014 organising committee, said: "Russia was the first country to send a man into space, and today we are making Olympic history by sending the Olympic torch into space for the first time. 'This feat underlines incredible human capabilities and will symbolise the aspirations of all athletes from around the world to reach new heights in sports.' International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach is confident there will be no discrimination against gay athletes and visitors at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Bach said he had received assurances from Russian President Vladimir Putin that everyone travelling to the February event would be welcomed equally 'regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation'. The German met with Putin in private last week to seek assurances over Russia's controversial anti-gay law, which has overshadowed the build-up to the Games. Clear skies: Olympic rings shine in the light outside the Soyuz launch pad shortly after the TMA-11M rocket was put into position on Tuesday Next leg: The three astronauts pass through the station before heading in to space with the Olympic torch

Only 34 days remain until the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The torch relay, which began in Greece last September, is billed as the longest in Winter Olympics history - covering 65,000 km (40,390 mi) as it passes through 2,900 towns and villages across all 83 regions of Russia. So far, the torch has been carried on foot and aboard sleds, ships, wheelchairs, camels, a Soyuz spacecraft, a nuclear-powered icebreaker, and a water jet-pack. The relay will come to an end on February 7, 2014, at the opening ceremony in Sochi. Torch bearers hold Olympic torches during the torch relay in the Far Eastern University on the Russky Island near the port city of Vladivostok, Russia, on November 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Alexander Khitrov) 2 Greek actress Ino Menegaki, playing the role of High Priestess, passes the Olympic flame to Greek skier Yannis Antoniou, the first torchbearer of the torch relay, at the site of ancient Olympia in Greece, on September 28, 2013. (Reuters/Yannis Behrakis) # 3 Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a torch in Moscow to start the relay across Russia, on October 6, 2013, as the Olympic Flame for the XXII Winter Olympic Games Sochi 2014 arrived in Russia. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images) # 4 Torch bearer Mikahil Chuyev, using a water jet pack, carries an Olympic torch from a boat to the shore during the Olympic torch relay on Lake Baikal in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 5 Olympic torches with the St. Basil's Cathedral at the background during a relay in Moscow, on October 8, 2013.(AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) # 6 Alexander Svetlichnykh carries the Olympic torch relay in Tyumen, Siberia, on December 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 7 A torch bearer rides in a sled pulled by reindeer during the torch relay near the Siberian city of Yakutsk, on November 9, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 8 Torch bearer Natalia Usacheva, ice cold water swimmer, swims along the Tatyshev Channel of the Yenisei River in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on November 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 9 101-year old Alexander Kaptarenko carries the Olympic torch through Novosibirsk, on December 7, 2013. Kaptarenko, who still plays table tennis, is the oldest torch bearer in the relay and he plans to participate in the European table tennis veterans championships.(AP Photo/Ilnar Salakhiev) # 10 A woman wearing a folk costume warms her ears as she takes part in a welcome ceremony of the Olympic torch relay in Novosibirsk, on December 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Ilnar Salakhiev) # 11 Russia's Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft carrying an international crew including Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and US astronaut Rick Mastracchio and an unlit Olympic torch for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi aboard blasts off from the Russian leased Kazakh Baikonur Cosmodrome, on November 7, 2013. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images) # 12 In the International Space Station's Rassvet Mini-Research Module 1, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin holds the Olympic torch, after arriving aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. (NASA) # 13 Russian astronaut Oleg Kotov holds the Olympic torch during a spacewalk, as Russian astronaut Sergei Ryazansky prepares the camera outside the International Space Station in this still image taken from video courtesy of NASA TV, on November 9, 2013.(Reuters/NASA TV) # 14 International Space Station crew member Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin holds the torch of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games after landing near the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan, on November 11, 2013. (Reuters/Shamil Zhumatov) # 15 A torch bearer holds the torch aboard a boat crossing Avacha Bay, near the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, on November 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 16 A torch bearer runs in a national open-air museum with more than 80 historical wooden structures in Kizhi island, near the center of Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia, on October 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 17 Alexander Chudnovskiy, holding the Olympic torch, is pushed in a sled during a welcome ceremony in the Taltsy open air museum on the Angara River, 47 km (29 miles) south of Irkutsk in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. About thousand performers dressed in folk costumes participated in the Olympic flame welcome ceremony. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 18 A combination of still images taken from video shows (top L-R) torchbearer and former swimming champion Shavarsh Karapetyan receiving the Olympic torch before the flame is blown out; and (bottom L-R) an unidentified man along the route relighting the torch with a lighter, as Karapetyan ran through the Kremlin in Moscow, on October 6, 2013. (Reuters/Reuters TV) # 19 Oleg Kalinin (left) and Vyacheslav Kalyuzhny hold Olympic torches at the Kedrovsky coal mine in Kemerovo region, west Siberia, on November 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 20 Olga Nasonova (center) carries the torch as she snowboards in the Sheregesh winter sports resort in Tashtagol, Kemerovo region, western Siberia, on November 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Ilnar Salakhiev) # 21 Mikahil Chuyev uses a jet pack to deliver the Olympic torch from a boat to the shore during the Olympic torch relay on Lake Baikal in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 22 An Olympic torch bearer holds the torch near Avachinsky Volcano, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, on November 12, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 23 Lifeguard Nikolai Rybachenko plunges with an Olympic torch with a water-resistant flare atop it into Lake Baikal, during the Olympic torch relay in Siberia, on November 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 24 Torch bearers, TV anchorwoman Yekaterina Andreyeva (right) and Alexander Vronsky, hold Olympic torches underwater, in Lake Baikal, on November 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 25 Galina Zhigunova (right), an employee of Baltika Breweries company, and jazz saxophonist Igor Butman take part in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in front of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in central St. Petersburg, on October 27, 2013.(Reuters/Alexander Demianchuk) # 26 A torch bearer gallops, accompanied by riders in folk costumes, during a torch relay near Ulan Ude, eastern Siberia, on November 22, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 27 Evgeny Zemskov rides a camel during the Olympic torch relay in Chelyabinsk, on December 17, 2013,(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 28 Residents watch the Olympic torch relay in Ufa, the regional capital of the Volga River region of Bashkortostan, on December 21, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 29 Vladimir Ivanov (right) and Svetlana Emelyanova hold Olympic torches in Ulan Ude, Siberia, on November 22, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 30 A group of torch bearers hold the Olympic torch at the North Pole, Arctic Ocean, on October 19, 2013. The nuclear-powered icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of the Victory) is in the background. (AP Photo/Sergei Dolya) # 31 Alfiya Aliyeva carries an Olympic torch as she reaches Bolgar on the Volga River, Russia,on December 30, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 32 Russian alpinist Vladimir Gunko stands at the top of the rock named "The First Stolb" (the First Pillar) at the Stolby national nature reserve during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic torch relay in the Siberian Taiga area outside Krasnoyarsk, on November 26, 2013.(Reuters/Ilya Naymushin) # 33 Lorisa Oorzhak (center) holds an Olympic torch as people dressed in folk costumes perform during a welcome ceremony in Aldyn Bulak, in Tuva, southern Siberia, on November 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 34 Radomir Proshchenko carries the Olympic torch suspended from a cable during the Olympic torch relay in Tyumen, western Siberia, on December 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 35 Evgeny Nefedov holds the Olympic torch on a snowcat in the Siberian city of Divnogorsk, on November 25, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com) # 36 Torch bearers in Gorno-Altaysk, Russia, on December 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com, Nikolay Tangerekov) # 37 Valentina Volokitina jumps with the Olympic torch during the torch relay in Kazan, Russia, on December 31, 2013.(AP Photo/Olympictorch2014.com)