Vintage Soviet Space Capsule Sold For Record $2.9M

abednegoyulo writes "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 Tuesday. 'It surpasses Sotheby's own sale in 1996 of a more modern Russian Soyuz capsule for $1.6 million,' Pearlman added. 'That spacecraft, purchased by Ross Perot's foundation, is now on loan and displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.'" Best treehouse ever.

How much for an actual Cosmonaut?

[elrous0]

I just hope this doesn't give Washington any ideas. With all this budget cutting, I would hate to think of it occurring to someone that the Smithsonian's collection would do really well at auction.

Re:

[click2005]

Or they'll plaster it in adverts.

"Come see the new Starbucks Soyuz Capsule!"

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[camperdave]

Or they'll plaster it in adverts.

"Come see the new Starbucks Soyuz Capsule!"

No doubt.

I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.

Good... Good... The drugs are working. Excellent. Notice how the subject is completely unaware that they are being controlled.

Work out a trade.

[LWATCDR]

Maybe Texas can make a deal with New York and trade it for the Enterprise. Houston should have gotten one of the Shuttles. They where the third most deserving location after the Smithsonian and KSC. Even if the only reason that Mission Control and astronaut training is there is because the SOB LBJ stole it from the Cape.

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[fl!ptop]

Houston should have gotten one of the Shuttles. They where the third most deserving location after the Smithsonian and KSC.

Although I agree that Houston "got the shaft" so to speak, I believe the reason they weren't selected is there's not enough tourism there. From Kens5.com [kens5.com], NASA administrator Charles Bolden said:

"This was a very difficult decision, but one that was made with the American public in mind. In the end, these choices provide the greatest number of people with the best opportunity to share in

Re:

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

Except now I have to go to one of the coasts for my kids to see a shuttle up close and personal. I know those of us in the fly-over states don't count but putting one in Chicago or St. Louis would have made it one hell of a lot easier for the rest of us to see it.

Three on the east coast. Give me a break.

Re:

[LWATCDR]

Well KSC has to have one. That is just a given. It is the real home of the manned space program. And one needed to go to NASM I mean it is the National Air and Space Museum even if it is going to an annex. It does seem to be a lot for NYC to get on as well. But just bring your kids to Florida if they want to see space stuff. You can go to KSC and see not only the Shuttle but the Saturn V, a TitanII Gemini, Mercury Atlas, Mercury Redstone, Apollo Saturn Ib and the Shuttle. But you can also take them Disney,

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[c0lo]

... the record sells for capsule??

Bad summary

[Lectoid]

Summary is misleading. I was confused till I read the article. I thought Ross Perot's foundation bought it for $1.6m. I didn't realize it was a Russian that bought it for 2.9 million until I RTFA.

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[skids]

What I want to know is why it is a "record 2.9 million". Do we keep records on souvenir space vehicle sales? For god's sake why?

Re:

[CharlyFoxtrot]

I imagine auction houses keep a record of prices of these kind of rarities to be able to offer an estimate should another one come to market.

Just the capsule?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

For $ 2.9 million I want the whole rocket ... fully tanked ... and Bam Margera to graffiti "Mars or bust!" on the capsule. And Johnny Knoxville as the co-pilot.

"Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville, and this is our mission to Mars. Or, we're fucked ..."

Removing those assholes from face of the Earth?

[denzacar]

In a fiery death no less?

Where is the donation button for that fine endeavor?

So where has it been?

[iiii]

I'm acutally surprised how that the price tag for something like this is so low. Also, I wonder where it has been. TFA says they buyer will be returning it to Russia, and hopes to put it in a museum. So where has it been and how did it fall into private hands? TFA doesn't say anythign about that. But I bet the answer is a dirty, dirty story.

Smart people...

[scotts13]

...are snatching up whatever space vehicles they can. I hear there's gonna be a shortage. Change the tubes in the radio, slap a coat of paint on it, and you can sell the US government seats to the space station. They're not going to get there any OTHER way. Sellers market...

Ross Perot's spaceship?

[dkleinsc]

I hear the problem was that it developed a hole in the outer hull, and the giant sucking sound was too much for him.

2.9 million for an empty metal ball?

[Syberz]

It's quite the nifty souvenir, but considering that it's been totally stripped of its equipment, you're just getting an empty diving bell that went to space. For 2.9 million I'd expect to be able to see the equipment that was used back then as well, see how cramped it really was and so on.

The Capsule that was Sold...

[markg11cdn]

From TFA: The Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule launched into space 20 days before Gagarin's historic first human spaceflight aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft. The unmanned Vostok 3KA-2 capsule carried a life-size mannequin nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich and a dog called Zvezdochka ("Little Star" in Russian).