RUSSIAN FOTON CAPSULE

These photos were taken on October 27, 2000 in the Santa Monica History of Flying Museum. This Foton was launched into space on April 11, 1990 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome with a Soyuz rocket as part of the French operation "Crocodile". The capsule carried over 1500 tons of scientific experiments and travelled 7.44 million miles during its 14-day flight. It returned to earth on April 27, 1990. It clearly shows scorch marks of the re-entry. I don’t think the capsule will be on display in the museum for long because it was sold at the Superior Galleries "Space Memorabilia" auction for $69,000. - on October 29.

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