Icon of Space History Sells for $2.9 Million To A Russian
Businessman
Fifty years after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first
man to travel into outer space, the Vostok 3KA-2 Space Capsule that
paved the way for his historic mission sold for $2,882,500 to
Evgeny Yurchenko, chairman of the investment fund AS Popov. Mr.
Yurchenko purchased theicon of space history Tuesday during an
auction at Southeby's with the intention of returning it
Russia.
Vostok 3KA-2
“The Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule is a historic artifact of
the Soviet space program,” said Mr. Yurchenko in a statement.
“Its successful return to Earth from space gave the green
light for Gagarin’s spectacular achievement. Until now, the
Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule was the only one of its kind outside of
Russia, and with the support and participation of Sotheby’s I
will be able to bring it home. It was especially meaningful to do
so on April 12, 2011, the 50th anniversary of the first manned
flight into space. I hope that Vostok will take its rightful place
in one of the national museums devoted to the history of the
formation of the Russian space program.”
Three weeks prior to Gagarin’s historic flight, the Soviet
space program launched the final test flight of the Vostok
spacecraft in preparation for this momentous event. The Vostok
3KA-2 carried a life-size cosmonaut mannequin dubbed Ivan
Ivanovich, and a dog, Zvezdochka, into low Earth orbit, and
reentered on its first pass over Russia 115 minutes later.
Vostok was the Soviet Union’s first program to put a man
in space, and was conceived and overseen by the architect of the
Soviet Space Program, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Five Vostok-type
capsules were launched in 1960-61. While two were destroyed, the
spacecraft that launched on 19 August, carrying the dogs Belka and
Strelka, demonstrated that living creatures could be returned
safely to earth from orbit. In 1961, Korolev focused his attention
on adapting the Vostok model to carry a human passenger. Even after
a successful test of the new design on 9 March 1961, Korolev
insisted on a final “dress rehearsal” before putting a
cosmonaut’s life in jeopardy. Vostok 3KA-2 blasted into space
on 25 March, carrying the mannequin Ivan Ivanovich and the dog
Zvezdochka (Russian for “Little Star”). After
completing one orbit, the capsule safely reentered the
earth’s atmosphere and landed near the city of Izhevsk, with
the mannequin ejecting prior to landing as planned and the dog
returning safely. With Korolev’s reservations now assuaged,
twenty days later Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in an exact twin
of this capsule, the Vostok 3KA-3, later renamed Vostok 1.
Notably, the Ivanovich mannequin has been on exhibition at the
Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum since 1997, after being
purchased at Sotheby’s New York in the 1993 auction of
Russian Space History.
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