Sotheby’s spent the last three years persuading cosmonauts and their families to part with memorabilia. Among them: a slide rule used by the chief designer of the Soviet space program (estimated sale price: $7,000 to $10,000), the telegram sent by Khrushchev congratulating Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space ($2,000 to $3,000), and the fork and can opener used by Gherman Titov, the second spaceman ($1,000 to $1,500). Soviet industries parted with historic goodies, too. The Soyuz TM-10 space capsule from the Soviet-Japanese mission of 1990 is expected to sell for $3 million to $5 million, and the mannequin that flew aboard Vostok in 1961 could bring $200,000 to $250,000. If a piece of history doesn’t excite you, there’s always a piece of the moon: lunar samples are expected to fetch $30,000 to $50,000.
