In footsteps of Yury Gagarin
The Vostok 3KA-2 is on display at Sotheby’s in New York (AFP Photo / Emmanuel Dunand)
A clone of the historic capsule that took Yury Gagarin into space – the Vostok 3KA-2 – will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight.
Just three weeks prior to the red-letter day, on 25 March 1961, a dress rehearsal of the key space mission was conducted.
It saw the Vostok 3KA-2 capsule blasting into space with two unconventional passengers onboard – a cosmonaut mannequin nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich and a dog Zvezdochka. According to the estimates, the one of a kind legendary test capsule could fetch from $2 to $10 million, and is currently on public display in America before the sale on April 12."Not only are there no other examples outside of Russia of the world's first spacecraft, this capsule was pivotal in space history by providing the green light for Gagarin's spectacular achievement," the Head of Sotheby's special projects department, David Redden, has been quoted as saying.
