The torch, which was unlighted for safety reasons, has twice been to outer space before, aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis ahead of the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta and four years later to the space station to celebrate the games in Sydney.
The radar mapping flight was delayed again when NASA decided to launch the shuttle Discovery ahead of it in December to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
James Milner and Fabian Delph provided the energy- shuttling form midfield, ahead of Jordan Henderson at the base.
At the Howard Beach subway station near Kennedy International Airport, budget travelers troop off the A train and roll their luggage grimly along the platform, steeling themselves for the gantlet ahead: the shuttle bus, the check-in lines, the gates, the waits, the endless cramped flight.
The astronauts aboard the space shuttle Atlantis were pressing ahead Thursday with plans to land in Florida as early as Friday morning, cleaning up after what amounted to an 11-day camping trip in space — stowing their gear, checking out landing systems and giving a last round of interviews, despite the threat of bad weather in Florida.
In the second half Ramires, the crucial extra midfielder, shuttling up and down ahead of Mikel and Lampard, greeted Arteta with a tackle almost as bad.
Bush would have claimed that Saddam Hussein was not cooperating, and shuttling the weapons around ahead of the inspectors' visits.
Doctors gave Giffords, the wife of shuttle commander Mark Kelly, the go-ahead to attend the launch, despite having removed a large chunk of her skull to relieve swelling, and an ongoing, intensive rehabilitation programme.
It can be seen in numerous shots as the ever-less-genial Uncle Charlie shuttles around town one step ahead of suspicions that he is a serial killer.
But like his predecessors, Mr. Goldin also frequently proclaimed that safety was the shuttle program's highest priority -- ahead of cost or scheduling considerations.
