Russian cosmonauts will take the Olympic torch to the International Space Station in November ahead of the 2014 winter games in Sochi. In a statement, the head of Russia's Olympic committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, said it will be a dramatic curtain-raiser to the games, which Russia is hosting in its Black Sea beach resort. The Russian space Roscosmos said the Olympic torch will be taken up to the ISS in a manned Soyuz spaceship. It said the torch will then be returned to Earth by cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who is currently in the ISS. Roscosmos said for reasons of safety, it is not planned for the torch to be lit, during its voyage in the Soyuz. Russia boasts that the route of its Olympic torch rally will be the longest ever, taking in 65,000 kilometres on transport ranging from planes to reindeer-drawn sledges.