DPA
A Russian space capsule used twice in the 1970s was sold yesterday for 1mn euros ($1.39mn), in a Brussels auction that was billed as the first European space sale.
The winning bid was made via telephone to the Kunsthaus Lempertz auction house.
The European buyer was not immediately identified, but the person also scooped up a spacesuit worn by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri during a 1996 mission.
“Space enthusiasts, private museums and Russian entrepreneurs” had been identified as possible buyers by a Lempertz representative ahead of the sale.
The auction house estimated the value of the Vozvrashchayemyi Apparat capsule, which weighs 1.9 tonnes, at $1-2mn.
Designed to transport supplies, it flew into space as part of Soviet missions in 1977 and 1978, according to Lempertz.
It described the capsule as “probably the first spacecraft that entered space twice”.
It previously had belonged to Excalibur Almaz, a company working to provide commercial space transportation.
Two Sokol KV2 spacesuits also went under the hammer at Lempertz yesterday, with an estimated value of around $80,000 each.
The spacesuit worn by Kaleri ended up being sold for a lower 50,000 euros. The second one, which was used by British-American astronaut Michael Foale in a 2003 mission, went to another unidentified telephone bidder for 55,000 euros.
“Mankind has been dreaming of flying for many centuries,” Lempertz owner Henrik Hanstein had said ahead of the sale, which took place at the auction house’s new branch in the Belgian capital. “It is the greatest honour to auction this piece of recent history.”