Soviet Spacecraft Kosmos 482 Crashes to Earth After 53-Year Orbit

A Soviet-era spacecraft, stranded in orbit for 53 years, made an unceremonious return to Earth on Saturday, crashing down after a failed Venus mission launched in 1972. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed the uncontrolled reentry, noting the spacecraft, Kosmos 482, vanished from subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s debris office backed this up when it failed to show on German radar.

Where it landed? Anyone’s guess. The half-ton titanium-encased lander, roughly three feet wide, was built to survive Venus’s scorching surface, so some chunks likely endured the fiery plunge. Scientists, however, assure us the odds of anyone getting hit by this cosmic relic are slimmer than winning the lottery.

Kosmos 482 was meant to explore Venus but got stuck circling Earth due to a rocket SNAFU. Most of it fell back within a decade, but this stubborn lander clung to orbit until gravity won. Solar activity and the craft’s decay made predicting its final descent a cosmic crapshoot.

Why the fuss? Unlike guided reentries aimed at oceans, this was a wild card. U.S. Space Command is still crunching data to confirm its fate, while trackers gave it extra scrutiny for its potential to survive reentry intact.