Soviet-era spacecraft plunges to Earth after 53 years stuck in orbit

Kosmos 482 weighed more than 495 kg. Pic/X@Kosmogadka

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.

The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled re-entry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency's space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had re-entered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.

It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system's hottest planet.

Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.

Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity's tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander "an estimated 3 feet across" was the last part of the spacecraft to come down.

The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 495 kilograms.

After following the spacecraft's downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft's deteriorating condition after so long in space.

1972
Year the Soviet Union launched Kosmos 482

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