Cosmonauts take Sochi Olympic torch on spacewalk

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Gripping the unlit silver-and-red torch in the gloved fist of his spacesuit, Oleg Kotov crawled through a hatch and stepped outside the International Space Station some 200 miles (320 km) above Earth, where he waved it triumphantly.

He handed the torch to Sergei Ryazansky and they took turns posing with it, with the station, the blackness of outer space and the blue-and-white orb of Earth as backdrops.

The footage, most taken from cameras mounted on the cosmonauts' spacesuit helmets, was broadcast live on U.S. space agency NASA's internet channel and Russian state television.

A three-man Russian, American and Japanese crew carried the torch up on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Thursday, bringing the number of crew aboard the station to nine for the first time without a U.S. shuttle parked at the outpost.

The spacewalk is a showcase for the Sochi Games in February, the first Olympics that Russia will hold si