David M. Ewalt is an editor for NBC News focusing on science and health.
A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a failed mission to Venus is believed to have crashed back onto Earth early on Saturday morning. The European Space Agency, which was monitoring the craft's uncontrolled descent, said it was last spotted by radar over Germany.
At at the time of its expected crash, radars could no longer detect the Kosmos 482, concluding that “it is most likely that the reentry has already occurred.” No injuries or damage have been reported. The Kosmos 482 spacecraft was part of the U.S.S.R's Venera program, a series of probes that were developed to research the planet Venus. Ten of those missions successfully landed on the hot, barren planet, but the rocket carrying Kosmos 482 malfunctioned. Its upper stage, which contained the descent craft, got stuck in Earth orbit. Over the following fifty-three years, the approximately three-foot wide, 1,069 pound spacecraft circled the Earth in an ever-smaller elliptical orbit, until it came close enough to fall into the planet's atmosphere. It's not unusual for space junk to fall back to earth. More than 2,400 human-made objects fell from space in 2022, a record number, according to ESA. The vast majority of them burned up in Earth's atmosphere, and most of those that didn't splashed into an ocean. But Kosmos 482 was built to withstand a descent through Venus' dense atmosphere, and to operate on the planet's surface, where the mean temperature is 867 degrees Fahrenheit . That meant it was theoretically hardy enough to survive a comparatively easy re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. There’s no record of space debris ever causing a human fatality. “The risk of any satellite reentry causing injury is extremely remote,” ESA officials wrote in a blog post about Kosmos-482. “The annual risk of an individual human being injured by space debris is under 1 in 100 billion. In comparison, a person is about 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning.” On Friday, the U.S. Space Force forecasted that the spacecraft would re-enter the atmosphere at 1:52 a.m. ET on Saturday morning above the Pacific Ocean, west of Guam.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Kosmos 482: 1,000-pound Soviet Venus probe could crash to earth after 53 yearsTypically, the risk to populated areas is low, with debris more likely to fall into remote regions of the ocean.
Read more »
History Crashes to Earth: The Long Journey of Venus Probe Kosmos 482The Best in Science News and Amazing Breakthroughs
Read more »
Soviet Spacecraft Cosmos 482 Crashes Back To Earth As Soon As FridayA space probe once bound for the surface of Venus will make its fiery return back to the surface of our planet before the end of the weekend.
Read more »
The Story Of Kosmos 482, The Soviet Spaceship About To Crash To EarthAfter 53 years in orbit, wayward Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 finally gets to land – albeit on the wrong planet.
Read more »
What to Know about Kosmos-482, the Soviet Spacecraft Crash-Landing on EarthKosmos-482, a failed mission to Venus from the former Soviet Union that stalled in Earth orbit in the 1970s, is about to fall back to our planet. Exactly where or when it will strike, however, remains unknown
Read more »
Track Soviet Spacecraft Cosmos 482 Reentry, Set To Crash Land In HoursThe final day of the 53-year, errant flight of the Soviet Union’s failed Venus space probe is now upon us. It's expected to have less than 24 hours left.
Read more »