Space Memorabilia Alert: Artifacts from the Soviet Space Program on the Auction Block
If you’re still trying to decide whether or not you can handle the $200,000 price tag for a ticket to outer space on Virgin Galactic, you might consider warming up by purchasing your very own Russian Sokol KV-2 Space Suit. Sudden rapid cabin depressurization? Not a problem.
Waddington’s, an auction house in Toronto, has just acquired a large private collection of memorabilia and artifacts from the Soviet Space Program that will be going to auction this month. Among the collection’s more unique items are an Anti-Gravity Human Waste Disposal Unit, a Mir Space Station Control Console, and blueprints for Space Shuttle Buran’s payload bay–pretty much everything you need to launch a makeshift space program from your garage.
Whether you’re a space junky or a steampunk collector, no auction catalogue has gotten me this excited since Battlestar Galactica auctioned off a full-size raptor. Almost all of the items on the list are “flown relics” and have served real time in space, adding to their historical value. But beyond that, the collection’s items display amazing craftsmanship and represent a comprehensive timeline of the Soviet Space Program from the 1930’s through the 80’s. How can you put a price on that?
Opening bids start at $100 for a chunk of Buran Space Shuttle insulation tile, and go all the way up to $25,000 for the fully-functioning Sokol KV-2 Space Suit, originally worn in space by Cosmonaut Anatoli Pavlovich Artsebarsky.
Now, if an “anonymous” bidder swoops in and buys the entire lot, my guess= Bond villain.
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