Vintage Soviet Spacecraft Fetches Nearly $2.9 Million at Auction

摘要

A vintage Vostok space capsule is headed back to its homeland with its new Russian owner, who bought the relic of the early days of human spaceflight for nearly $2.9 million during Sotheby's auction April 12. It is believed to be the most anyone has ever paid for a space artifact. Sotheby's sold the Vostok 3KA-2 capsule to Russian businessman Evgeny Yurchenko during an auction that marked the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who launched aboard a different Vostok capsule April 12, 1961. Yurchenko, who is the chairman of the investment fund AS Popov, paid a total of $2,882,500 for the Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule, and plans to return it to Russia, Sotheby's officials said. The Vostok auction set an apparent record for space memorabilia sales and is one of the few examples of space memorabilia that have sold for more than $1 million.