NASA to fly Olympic torch into space

SYDNEY, FEBRUARY 11: NASA astronauts will take the Olympics torch into space as an international gesture, a report said on Friday.

The specially-designed torch minus the internal mechanism and gas cylinders will blast off from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida on April 13 on shuttle flight STS-101 to the International Space Station 365 kilometres above Earth.

Also on the flight will be the Sydney 2000 Olympic flag and the Australian flag, that the crew of five Americans and a Russian will fly at the space station. Australian astronaut Andy Thomas is behind the plan. Thomas planned the event as “an international venture” to give the torch “as much exposure as possible”.