Soyuz TMA-11M was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the Olympic Torch on board, at exactly 8:14am local time and is thought to have arrived on schedule at 12:40pm.

The journey has been timed to coincide with the anniversary of the beginning of the Russian leg of the Torch Relay which occurred exactly one month ago with a Handover Ceremony in Athens.

"The docking was carried out on schedule in automatic mode," a spokesman for Russia's Roscosmos space agency told RIA Novosti

The three crew members - Japan's Koichi Wakata, America's Richard Mastracchio and Russian commander Mikhail Tyurin - wore badges emblazoned with images of the Olympic Torch and the Sochi 2014 logo for the voyage.

On arrival they were due to pass the Torch to Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazansky, who were already at the Station and who will take the Torch on a spacewalk on Saturday (November  9).

Ryazansky will carry cameras and video equipment whilst Oleg Kotov will follow him with the Torch - with the four hour expedition to be broadcast live on television.

The Torch will then return to earth two days later where it will be carried by another cosmonaut currently at the Station, Fedor Yurchikhin.

Japanese cosmonaut Koichi Wakata was one of three figures inside the rocket as it departed for the International Space Station




Since first arriving on Russian shores with a weekend visit to Moscow, the Torch has visited vast swathes of the world's largest country on a journey that, several unintended extinguishes of the Flame notwithstanding, has been heralded as a huge success.

The trip so far included a visit to the North Pole on board a submarine last month as well as a subsequent transportation over inhospitable Arctic tundra region. 

But the success of today's launch puts even the treacherous nature of this into the shade - in both a metaphorical and a literal sense.

This was acknowledged by Dmitry Chernyshenko, President and chief executive of Sochi 2014.

"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," he said.

"This feat underlines incredible human capabilities and will symbolise the aspirations of all athletes from around the world to reach new heights in sports."

Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin and Rick Mastracchio proudly hold the Torch ahead of their departure to the International Space Station




However although the voyage is being a heralded predominantly due to its additional passenger in the form of the Olympic Torch, the incoming trio of cosmonauts will also have plenty of work to do during their mission on board the International Space Station.

This will involve the overseeing of the docking of a Russian MLM module, the unloading of several space freighters, and the attaching a European robotic arm to the Russian segment of the station as well as the carrying out of a variety of scientific experiments.

By the time the trio return to earth in 190 days time, the Torch Relay as well as both the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, will have been completed. 

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