Akhir 25, 1432 H/March 30, 2011, SPA -- One of the first spacecraft will go on the auction block at Sotheby's in New York to mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight, according to dpa. The Russian Vostok 3KA to be auctioned on April 12 is identical to the one flown by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin 50 years ago. The model to go under the hammer flew into space with a dog aboard just days before Gagarin's history making flight in a last test flight in March 1961. The auction house is billing the craft as the world's "first spaceship," but although it is the same model as those that took six Russian cosmonauts into space, the specific craft was not actually used for humans. Instead, it made the last test flight before man went into orbit, carrying the dog known as Zvezdochka, or Little Star, and a mannequin wearing a spacesuit. The 2.3-metre spherical reentry capsule to be auctioned includes the door through which cosmonauts would enter and leave the capsule and a host of instruments. Sotheby's said the capsule was sold into private hands shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union. It is expected to fetch between 2 million and 10 million dollars.
