OKLAHOMA CITY - One of history's most significant spacecrafts has disembarked at Omniplex.Serving as a monumental testament to the advancements the world has achieved in space exploration over the past 50 years, the Soviet Space Agency's Vostok 3KA-2 spacecraft was the fifth and last unmanned VOSTOK test crafts whose efforts successfully set into motion the manned flight era of space exploration with its successful launch and recovery efforts in the early 1960s. The spacecraft is currently on loan from the Kaller's America Gallery.
    Sent into space March 25, 1961, this $75 million Soviet capsule was "piloted" by Ivan Ivanovich, a mannequin, and a live dog, Zvezdochka. After orbiting the earth with his canine companion for 115 minutes, Ivan and Zvevdochka were both successfully ejected upon re-entry and landed near the Ural Mountains.
    The success of this capsule convinced the Soviet decision makers the time had come to launch the first man into space. One expert and author claimed, "Vostok 3KA-2 was the key in the door for Gagarin's flight." Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 11, 1961, just 8 days after Vostok 3KA-2's launch.
    This spacecraft is the twin sister to the first craft to fly man into the cosmos, and since it preceded the Gagarin flight, it can be seen as the most significant original space vehicle ever to be exhibited in the western world.  
    "The significance of this spacecraft cannot be overstated," said museum curator Michael Shanklin. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for museum guests to view the only flown Russian VOSTOK in American and the flown Gemini VI spacecrafts in the same venue."
    The VOSTOK 3KA-2 spacecraft is currently on display and will be added to the newly constructed space gallery upon its completion in February 2005 at Omniplex. The gallery will also house several other significant Kaller artifacts including:

• Oklahoman Shannon Lucid's Russian Spacesuit for the Shuttle-MIR mission
• Apollo 11 Lunar landing "insurance" stamped cover (signed by mission astronauts if in the event they died during the mission, their families would receive compensation)
• Cooperation in Space Document- "The Space Magna Carta" signed in space during the Apollo Soyuz mission with the Soviet cosmonauts on July 17, 1975 (one of four in the world, including Oklahoma astronaut Tom Stafford's signature)
• Vostok 6 Voice Recorder Box- Valentina Tereshkova's (first woman in space) voice recorder box
• Deke Slayton's slide rule used throughout his career
• Small cloth flag with Christian cross with letter from Oklahoman Gordon Cooper saying flag was "in the sealed packet in my flight suit jacket on Mercury Atlas 9."