WASHINGTON - A Soviet space capsule that orbited the Earth 50 years ago sold for about $2.9 million at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday.

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The spherical Vostok 3KA-2 Space Capsule fetched for $2.88 million in an auction dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight, the lower end of the $2-10 million range expected by the auction house.

The spacecraft with a life-sized human dummy and the dog, named Zvezdochka ("small star" in Russian), made a successful orbit of the Earth in about two hours on March 25, 1961, before re-entering the atmosphere. The dog survived the mission, which is the final test before Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin's historic flight on April 12, 1961.

The buyer of the space capsule is Russian businessman Evgeny Yurchenko. In a statement, Yurchenko said he hoped the Vostok would "take its rightful place in one of the national museums devoted to the history of the formation of the Russian space program."