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by
Marc Boucher
Excalibur Almaz Capsule Sold in Auction, SpaceRef Business
“Commercial spaceflight services company Excalibur Almaz recently auctioned one of its assets, a Soviet era space capsule, the Vozvraschaemyi Apparat (VA), at the Brussels auction house Kunsthaus Lempertz KG for €1.26 million euros (US$1.72M).”
Marc Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor, podcaster and publisher who has worked in space media for more than 25 years. In 1999 he co-founded SpaceRef with Keith Cowing. The new media company grew into a network that included NASA Watch and The Astrobiology Web. After selling SpaceRef, he joined Multiverse Media, which later merged with SpaceNews. There he helped steer the combined company toward more multimedia, a subscription paywall and intelligence products, and pushed for a mobile app. He is also the founder of SpaceQ Media, Canada’s space news and market intelligence publication.
Marc started his first Internet content business in 1992 and hasn’t looked back. When he’s not working, he loves exploring Canada and the world and expanding his photography skills.
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Certainly seems like Excalibur Almaz is withering on the vine.One could think the sale of this asset is to attempt to keep the company afloat. I feel that this is the beginning of the end and more assets will be auctioned off soon.
This is a surprise?
Admittedly, when I first read their name “Excalibur Almaz”, my mind accidentally (or perhaps in a Freudian prophetic way) mispronounced it as “Alaca-Zam!” Well, it now seems appropriate; as it looks as though they have been surviving mostly on smoke and mirrors.
So that image is from the auction house? I guess they see it as something for a museum in that image, but I laughed and immediately thought of 2001: A Space Odyssey with those suited guys in there.
I still remember the days people were telling me Excalibur Almaz would beat SpaceX to orbit. Lotta true believers jumped on that wagon.
Sell the hardware back to the Russians. If the Russians dump the ISS they may be needing a spacestation quickly.