Olympic Torch Sent to Space, Taken on Spacewalk by Russian Cosmonauts (Photos)

The Olympic torch has now done something only a handful of people on Earth have ever done — traveled to space and hung out outside of a spacecraft.

The torch was launched into space from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday morning, and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy carried the unlit torch of the 2014 Sochi games outside of the International Space Station as it orbited some 260 miles above Earth on Saturday.

The ceremonial torch wasn’t lit for its flight up or visit into space because lighting it would use up oxygen and pose a threat to the crew.

It wasn’t the first time an Olympic torch has gone into space, though. In 1996, the torch for the Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta was taken aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, but this was the first time the torch was taken outside of a spacecraft.

The Sochi torch will return to Earth with a three-man crew on Monday.

Check out cool photos below of the torch in space.

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