Defunct Soviet Probe is Set to Crash-Land on Earth After Spending 53 Years in Space

The Verge
The chance of getting hit by a Soviet spacecraft goes up next week

It’s currently unclear where it will fall, or if the space junk will burn up before impact, but as Langbroek notes in his blog: “this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere,” the surface of which sits at an average of 867 degrees Fahrenheit (464 degrees Celsius), so there’s a chance it will survive reentry. The descent will also be uncontrolled, as there are significant doubts that the lander’s parachute deployment system will still work after all these years. The real-world likelihood of actually being hit by Kosmos 482 is astronomically slim. “The risk is similar to that of a random meteorite fall, several of which happen each year,” Langbroek told The Guardian. “You run a bigger risk of getting hit by lightning in your lifetime.”

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The Verge
AP NEWS
Soviet-era spacecraft is set to plunge to Earth a half-century after its failed launch to Venus

A Soviet-era spacecraft meant to land on Venus in the 1970s is expected to soon plunge uncontrolled back to Earth. It’s too early to know where the half-ton mass of metal might come down or how much of it will survive reentry, according to space debris-tracking experts. Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek predicts the failed spacecraft will reenter around May 10. He estimates it will come crashing in at 150 mph (242 kph), if it remains intact. “While not without risk, we should not be too worried,” Langbroek said in an email.

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AP NEWS
New York Post
Failed Soviet satellite is falling back to Earth—scientists warn car-sized probe could be deadly

It’s not just asteroids that are threatening to rock our world. A defunct Soviet satellite is slated to hurtle back to Earth next week, prompting concerns from space experts that we could potentially be in the line of fire. The unit “might well survive Earth atmosphere entry and hit the ground,” warned British-American astronomer Jonathan McDowell in a blog post. “In which case, I expect it’ll have the usual one-in-several-thousand chance of hitting someone.” Launched in March 1972 by the USSR, the Kosmos 482 probe was dispatched to gather data from Venus’ inhospitable surface, Livescience reported. However, due to a malfunction with one of the rocket boosters, the intergalactic recon machine was left stranded in Earth’s orbit — literally spiraling out of control. The dead spacecraft — which is around the size of a car — is now on track for reentry sometime between May 7 and 13, give or take a few days.

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New York Post
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News Results

Kosmos 482: Soviet Union's Failed Venus Probe Is About To Slam Into Earth
Between 1961 and 1984, the Soviet Union launched a series of space probes in order to study the second-closest planet to the Sun. The overall program was a resounding success, with Venera 3 becoming the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet on March 1, 1966. One probe, launched in 1972, failed to make it to its target, earning it the name Kosmos 482.
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A Soviet Spacecraft Is About to Crash Back to Earth After Being Stuck in Orbit for 53 Years
The Cosmos 482 lander was intended to reach Venus, but it has instead been circling Earth since 1972. The Soviet Union’s Venera 8 spacecraft became the second ever to land on Venus. It operated for 50 minutes before succumbing to the intense heat. It's currently impossible to predict exactly when the probe will re-enter the atmosphere.
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Soviet-era spacecraft is set to plunge to Earth a half-century after its failed launch to Venus
A Soviet-era spacecraft meant to land on Venus in the 1970s is expected to soon plunge uncontrolled back to Earth. Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek predicts the failed spacecraft will reenter around May 10. He estimates it will come crashing in at 150 mph (242 kph), if it remains intact.
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Kosmos 482: Decades-old Soviet spacecraft still orbiting Earth may crash back around May 10
Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of the USSR’s ambitious Venera programme. A rocket malfunction left it stranded in Earth orbit. It split into four parts after a failed attempt to reach a Venus transfer trajectory. The lander module, built to survive Venus’ hostile atmosphere, remained in orbit for over 50 years.
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Soviet Spacecraft Set To Crash Into Earth in May
Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972, as part of the Soviet Union's ambitious Venera program to explore Venus. Due to a rocket malfunction shortly after launch, the spacecraft never made it out of Earth's orbit. Now, 53 years later, its descent module will finally return home.
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Soviet-era spacecraft expected to plunge uncontrolled to Earth next week
Kosmos 482, weighing 500kg, was meant to land on Venus in the 1970s but it never made it out of orbit because of a rocket malfunction
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1970s Soviet probe set to return to Earth in May 2025
A Soviet probe launched more than half a century ago is due to return to Earth in the next week or two. There's every chance that the vehicle will make it all the way to our planet's surface. Kosmos 482 launched in March 1972 from Baikonur on top of a Molniya rocket with the intention of getting to Venus.
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A Russian satellite will crash into Earth next week, but no one knows where
Kosmos 482, a chunk of a Cold War-era spacecraft meant to land on Venus, is now expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere around May 10. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Russian spacecraft come crashing down to Earth, though this is notably a dangerous encounter because of why the spacecraft was built in the first place.
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53 Years After Its Launch, This Soviet Spacecraft Is About to Crash Into Earth
The Cosmos 482 mission was launched in March 1972. The lander probe is expected back around May 10. The mission hit a rough patch after reaching Earth orbit and separating into four pieces. Two of the pieces quickly decayed out of orbit, but the other two are expected to survive.
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A defunct Soviet probe from the 70s will crash to Earth next week
The Kosmos 482 mission was intended to land on Venus but a malfunction during its launch meant that the spacecraft never made it out of Earth’s orbit. Now, astronomers who have been tracking the object have calculated that it will crash to Earth next week, around May 10. Uncontrolled re-entries are a problem because they are unpredictable.
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Soviet-era spacecraft expected to crash to Earth this month
The 498.95kg module, known as Kosmos 482, was part of a craft initially bound for Venus when it launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the then-Soviet Union in March 1972. It is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere sometime between May 7 and May 13 in an event that is being closely watched.
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