After 53 years in space, failed Soviet probe Kosmos 482 falls back to Earth

Yahoo

11-05-2025

After being stuck in space for more than half a century, a failed Soviet-era spacecraft—designed to collect data from Venus—crashed into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia in the early hours of Saturday. The crash was reported by Russia's space agency Roscosmos through a statement on the instant messaging app Telegram.
The spacecraft was launched as part of the Soviet Union's ambitious Venera program towards the fag end of the Space Race in 1972. The mission proved to be a failure as the spacecraft never reached Venus and instead remained stranded in the Earth's orbit for 53 years.
Kosmos 482 was built as the twin of Venera 8, which launched in July 1972 and became the second spacecraft—after Venera 7—to successfully land on Venus. Venera 8 transmitted data from the planet's scorching surface for just over 50 minutes before succumbing to the extreme conditions.
In the case of Kosmos 482, a malfunction in the upper stage of its rocket booster Soyuz left the spacecraft with only enough velocity to be trapped in the Earth's elliptical orbit. Now, less than 5,000 miles from its original launch site at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, the probe's decades-long journey has finally come to an end.
Although the crash avoided damage to property or life, it is still unclear whether the spacecraft's lander survived the impact of reentry. According to the statement by Roscosmos, "the Kosmos-482 spacecraft has ceased to exist after deorbiting and falling into the Indian Ocean." The agency noted that the descent was tracked by the Automated Warning System for Hazardous Situations in Near-Earth Space.
In the aftermath of its failed launch, Kosmos 482 split into several components, with one component comprising the main body and the lander. The main section reentered Earth's atmosphere on May 5, 1981—nine years after launch—while the lander continued orbiting in a slow decay that lasted over five decades.
Designed to withstand the harsh conditions of Venus' atmosphere, the 1,091-pound, 3-foot lander is expected to remain mostly intact if recovered. Under a UN treaty, any surviving debris from the spacecraft would belong to Russia.
Kosmos 482's reentry highlights the increasing problem of space debris orbiting the Earth. Since the late 1950s, thousands of satellites have been launched into orbit. While many have fulfilled their missions, they remain in space as inactive or defunct satellites, adding to the expanding issue of collection waste in the orbit.
Although the risk of injury or damage from any single reentry is very low—with most debris burning up in the atmosphere and the rest landing in the ocean or on uninhabited land—the chances of a destructive impact grow as the number of reentries increase.
The European Space Agency estimates that around 3,000 dead satellites are currently orbiting Earth, presenting a growing risk to human safety. The majority of operational satellites belong to SpaceX's Starlink broadband megaconstellation, which currently includes around 7,200 satellites and continues to expand.