Lord British buys a  spare Sputnik for a mere 15k USD and a seat on the Soyuz to the International Space Station in October. Agency can now survive another year.

OK, so you know I'm kidding but Richard Garriot (aka Lord British), a known collector of space memorabilia, was featured in a story on the NYTimes that talks about his collection, his family connection to the space race and how that informed his career. 

The original Sputnik burned up on re-entry back in 1957 but apparently the agency had several 'spares' laying around just in case.  Those in the know question whether or not this thing is even real.  The article quotes one Charles Schollenberger, a collector in Prairie Village, Kan., who has followed the trail to Russian designers who worked on the original, said flatly, “The many people who have bought ‘duplicates’ or ‘backups’ over the years have unfortunately bought the Russian equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Whether it's real or not - we're sure it looks pretty cool in his parlor.  A funnier note is the steps taken to ship the unit stateside from the Soviet Union.  In order avoid raising undue alarm - they unscrewed the antennae and opened the sphere - shipping it in two separate pieces and labeling them as...wait for it...salad bowls. 

It's a great little read if you're a Garriot fan.

Source: NYTimes