New York, April 13 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Vostok 3KA-2 space capsule that carried a mannequin and a dog into space as a rehearsal for Yury Gagarin's manned space mission has been sold at a Sotheby's auction for $2,882,500.

The one-lot "space auction" in New York Tuesday was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight.

The Vostok 3KA-2 spacecraft with the dog, named Zvezdochka (a "small star" in Russian), made a successful orbit of the Earth in about two hours March 25, 1961, before re-entering the atmosphere. The dog survived the mission.

The aluminum capsule is a twin of the Vostok 3KA-3, which 18 days later took Gagarin on a historic space trip. Gagarin's spacecraft, later renamed Vostok-1, is kept as an exhibit at a space history museum in Korolyov, near Moscow.

The space capsule sold in New York was the only surviving Vostok spaceship outside of Russia and "the only one in private hands", said Sotheby's.