Present Ownership
Ownership of Lunokhod 2 and the Luna 21 lander was sold by the Lavochkin Association for $68,500 in December 1993 at a Sotheby's auction in New York. (The catalog incorrectly lists lot 68A as Luna 17/Lunokhod 1).
The buyer was computer gaming entrepreneur and astronaut's son Richard Garriott (also known as Lord British), who stated in a 2001 interview with Computer Games Magazine's Cindy Yans that:
- I purchased Lunakod 21 from the Russians. I am now the world's only private owner of an object on a foreign celestial body. Though there are international treaties that say, no government shall lay claim to geography off planet earth, I am not a government. Summarily, I claim the moon in the name of Lord British!
Richard Garriott has more recently confirmed that he is the owner of Lunokhod 2.
Read more about this topic: Lunokhod 2
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