June 15 - The former USSR space capsule 'Vostok 3KA-2' has been safely returned to a museum in Russia onboard an AirBridgeCargo Airlines' B747-400 freighter.
Weighing 5,600 kilos, the capsule was transported from ABC's European on-line station in Frankfurt on one of the airline's scheduled flights to its cargo hub at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport.
The space capsule was produced by the USSR and is of great historical interest for its role in the country's space exploration programme. 'Vostok 3KA-2' went into orbit on March 25, 1961 - 18 days before cosmonaut Yury Gagarin's first flight. Its return coincides with the 50th anniversary of that first space flight. In the 1990s, the capsule was bought by an American businessman in New York.
"It is not the first time AirBridgeCargo has been entrusted with carrying such an important and highly sensitive shipment and it once again highlights our expertise in the carriage of special cargo. Being under the umbrella ofVolga-Dnepr Group enables us to share its unique expertise from over 20 years of transporting outsize and heavy air cargo and apply this knowledge to our scheduled cargo operation, "said Tatyana Arslanova, executive president of AirBridgeCargo airlines.
