Soviet Space Capsule Sells at Auction for $1.4 Million

An employee at the Lempertz Auction House looks into in a Soviet capsule Vozvrashchayemyi Apparat in Brussels.

An anonymous buyer is now the proud owner of a piece of Soviet space history.

The unidentified European paid nearly $1.4 million for a capsule that carried three cosmonauts into orbit in 1977.

Germany's Lempertz auction house says the spacecraft was fully restored. Burn marks smeared on the side when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere were removed and the capsule received a fresh coating of white paint.

Lempertz says the capsule was the first spacecraft ever to fly into orbit twice, also making an unmanned flight in 1978.

Two Russian spacesuits were also auctioned off Wednesday