Out-of-control Soviet spacecraft CRASHES into Earth after getting stuck in orbit for 50 years on doomed Venus mission
A SOVIET-era spacecraft has crashed down to Earth more than half a century after its failed launch to Venus.
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A failed Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 has arrived back at Earth
Credit: Anatoly Zak/RussianSpaceWeb.com
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The spacecraft hurtled 'uncontrolled' into Earth's atmosphere
Credit: SWNS
The European Space Agency debris office agreed that the spacecraft had reentered - after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It's not yet clear where the speeding spaceship crash landed - or how much of it survived the fiery descent.
Experts said ahead of time that the wreckage could arrive whole, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus - the solar system's hottest planet.
The hunk of space junk, called Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, was first launched in 1972 with the intention of it touching down on Earth's neighbouring planet.
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But this mission failed - and the probe has been stuck in low
Earth
orbit ever since.
Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in space situational awareness at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands
predicted the lander's return in a
Scientists said there was a very slim chance of the machine smashing into people or buildings.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch.
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