Soviet Venus Probe Falls After 53 Years
A Soviet-era spacecraft called Kosmos 482 fell back to Earth on Saturday, ending more than half a century of unintended orbit. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) network confirmed the uncontrolled return after looking at radar data and noticing that the craft no longer appeared on its expected paths. The European Space Agency (ESA) also reported the reentry after the spacecraft failed to pass over a German radar station. Officials said it was not yet clear where Kosmos 482 came down, or how much of the half-ton vehicle survived the burning descent through the atmosphere.
Kosmos 482 was launched by the Soviet Union in 1972 as part of a series of missions aimed at Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system. The spherical lander was wrapped in titanium and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (about 495 kilograms) . It was built to survive the extreme heat of a Venusian landing. However, a rocket failure left the spacecraft trapped in Earth's orbit, and most of the vehicle returned to the atmosphere within ten years. The lander itself, about three feet (one metre) across, slowly lost altitude over decades. It became the final piece of the failed mission to fall.
Predicting exactly when and where Kosmos 482 would come down proved difficult. Solar activity, which can heat and expand the upper atmosphere, combined with the spacecraft's worn condition to create great uncertainty in the forecasts. Unlike controlled reentries, in which engineers steer old satellites toward the Pacific Ocean, this descent was completely uncontrolled. Even so, scientists said the chance of anyone being hit by surviving debris was extremely small. As of Saturday morning, the U.S. Space Command had not yet confirmed the spacecraft's final location.