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Newsweek
10-05-2025
- Science
- Newsweek
Soviet Spacecraft Kosmos 482 Crashes Into Earth: What To Know
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A Soviet spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere on Saturday, more than 50 years after its unsuccessful mission to Venus. The spacecraft Kosmos 482, launched in 1972, crashed into the Indian Ocean on Saturday after spending over five decades in orbit. Newsweek contacted the European Space Agency for comment via email on Saturday outside of usual working hours and was directed to its live blog for updates. File photo: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's Vostok spacecraft's landing capsule is seen on display at Moscow's Museum of Cosmonautics on April 9, 2021. File photo: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's Vostok spacecraft's landing capsule is seen on display at Moscow's Museum of Cosmonautics on April 9, 2021. Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images)/Getty Images Why It Matters Kosmos 482's descent highlights the longevity of space debris and the importance of monitoring defunct satellites. Experts note that, while such re-entries are rare, they show the need for continued vigilance in tracking objects in Earth's orbit. What To Know Kosmos 482 was part of the Soviet Union's Venera program between 1961 and 1984, aiming to study Venus. However, due to a malfunction in its launch vehicle, the spacecraft failed to escape Earth's orbit and had remained trapped in an elliptical orbit since March 1972. As reported by U.K. news outlet The Independent, the spacecraft was spherical in shape, 3 feet across. Its robust design, intended to withstand Venus's harsh conditions, allowed it to survive reentry. Weighing approximately 1,100 pounds, the lander was built to endure extreme pressures and temperatures. The reentry was unmonitored, and the exact time and location of the crash were uncertain until confirmation of its descent into the Indian Ocean. Agencies such as the European Space Agency (ESA) had been tracking the spacecraft, predicting a reentry window between May 9 and 11. Before this, the ESA, which was monitoring the craft's uncontrolled descent, said it was last spotted by radar over Germany, NBC News reported. As of Saturday morning, the U.S. Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit, The Associated Press reported. What People Are Saying University of Colorado Boulder scientist Marcin Pilinski said, as reported by The Independent: "While we can anticipate that most of this object will not burn up in the atmosphere during reentry, it may be severely damaged on impact. The odds of it slamming into a populated area were "infinitesimally small," he said. The live blog from ESA's Space Debris Office posted: "Satellites and rocket parts of moderate size reenter almost daily, while small-size tracked space debris objects reenter even more frequently. "Pieces that survive have only very rarely caused any damage on the ground. With the increasing space traffic, we expect that reentry frequencies increase further in the future." On the subject of whether space debris can cause injury, ESA's blog stated: "The risk of any satellite reentry causing injury is extremely remote. 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." What Happens Next Any surviving wreckage from Kosmos 482 will belong to Russia under a United Nations treaty, The Independent said.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine drones close Moscow airports ahead of WWII parade
Russia is preparing to hold its annual Red Square Victory Day parade in the shadow of its Ukraine offensive (Alexander NEMENOV) (Alexander NEMENOV/AFP/AFP) A Ukrainian drone barrage forced Russia to close a dozen airports deep behind the front line on Tuesday, days before foreign leaders gather in Moscow for a World War II Victory Day parade. Around 29 foreign leaders, including China's Xi Jinping, will be atten the celebration, marking 80 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. President Vladimir Putin is set to use the event to justify his three-year-long offensive on Ukraine, which has left tens of thousands of people dead and seen Russia capture swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine. The Kremlin said that it would stick to a three-day truce it proposed to coincide with the parade -- which Ukraine has dismissed as nothing more than an attempt by Moscow to secure the safety of the parade. Ukraine has instead called for a month-long ceasefire. "President Putin's initiative for a temporary ceasefire during the holidays is relevant," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. But he added that "an adequate response will be given immediately" if Ukraine does not also halt fire. Kyiv has denounced the proposal as "theatrical" and a "manipulation" -- instead demanding a longer, immediate ceasefire as a step towards ending three years of conflict that began with the launch of Russia's offensive in 2022. It said Russian attacks killed at least three civilians -- including one child -- and wounded 10 others, also including children, in the Sumy region of Ukraine on Tuesday. Speculation has swirled over the safety of Moscow's May 9 parade -- which Russia has said will be its grandest ever -- marking the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. It will take place in the shadow of the Ukraine conflict and with the United States pushing for both sides to end the fighting, so far to no avail. The Kremlin said Tuesday that 29 "foreign leaders" were expected to attend the Red Square parade, including Jinping and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva. - Hundreds of drones - On the eve of Xi's arrival, Moscow said that Ukraine had launched more than 100 drones targeting a dozen regions, including on the Russian capital. Kyiv, meanwhile, said Russia attacked with 136 drones. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defences shot down 19 drones around the capital and debris fell on a major avenue, without causing injuries. Flight restrictions were introduced at more than a dozen airports, including four in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Federal Air Transport Agency. Traffic at the main Sheremetyevo airport remained largely unaffected however. Russian media broadcast images of a cracked supermarket window and a blackened residential building facade in Moscow. Airports were also affected in other cities, including Volgograd in the southwest and Nizhny Novgorod in the west. In the Kursk region, acting governor Alexander Khinshtein said an attack was carried out on an electrical substation in the city of Rylsk, wounding two teenagers. On the battlefield, Moscow said its troops had captured the village of Lysivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. It lies south of Pokrovsk, which Russian troops have been trying to seize for months. But in one of the few spheres of cooperation, Russia and Ukraine also each released 205 captured soldiers, both sides said. - 'Not liberators' - Kyiv also warned against any foreign countries sending their troops to take part in the parade, as the Kremlin said units from 13 other nations, including China, would march on Red Square. Ukraine said it would be seen as "unacceptable" and "sharing responsibility" for Moscow's actions in Ukraine. "The Russian army has committed and continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine on a scale that Europe has not seen since World War II... These people are not liberators of Europe, they are occupiers and war criminals," Kyiv's foreign ministry said. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has denounced Putin's proposal of a three-day ceasefire, to start at 2100 GMT on May 7, as "playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere" for the May 9 parade. He instead demanded an immediate, longer ceasefire. Putin in March rejected a US-proposed unconditional ceasefire that Zelensky had accepted. US President Donald Trump on Monday defended Putin's proposal, saying it "doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot, if you knew where we started from". Washington has held separate talks with both Kyiv and Moscow to end the conflict, but has threatened to walk away from the process if progress is not made soon. bur/bc/js/tw
