Latest news with #RalfVandebergh
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
A failed Soviet Venus probe is expected to fall to Earth today, but when and where? Here's what we know
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. In 1972, the Soviet Union launched the Kosmos 482 lander, a spacecraft designed to reach Venus and land on its surface. The craft never reached Venus, however. The rocket that launched it suffered an anomaly, stranding the probe in an elliptical orbit around Earth where it has remained for over 50 years. That five-decade stay in space could come to an end today. Kosmos 482 is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere and possibly crash somewhere on the surface of the planet. The probe consists of a 3.3-foot-wide (1-meter-wide) titanium shell lined with thermal insulation, designed to withstand the heat of entry into Venus' atmosphere. The craft weighs about 1,190 pounds (495 kilograms). It's still quite uncertain just where and when the craft will fall, although it is expected to reenter around 1:54 a.m. ET (0554 GMT) on May 10, plus or minus nine hours, according to The Aerospace Corporation's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS). According to current tracks and the dead probe's orbital inclination of 52 degrees, the craft's reentry could occur anywhere between 52 degrees north latitude and 52 degrees south — an area that covers most of Earth's surface. However, the reentry of Kosmos 482 might not be as dangerous as other space junk falls. "As it will likely reach earth surface as only one single object, the risks involved are lower than for example those created by a Falcon 9 upper stage reentry, which showers multiple meter-sized objects over a large area," Dutch satellite tracker Marco Langbroek wrote in a blog post tracking the reentry of Kosmos 482. But there's no need to fear being struck by the falling probe, according to CORDS. After all, 71% of Earth's surface is covered in water, and much of the land on the surface is unpopulated. The odds are that the probe will land somewhere harmless. "While the risk is nonzero, any one individual on Earth is far likelier to be struck by lightning than to be injured by Cosmos 482," according to The Aerospace Corporation. "If it remains intact all the way to the surface, we project a risk of 0.4 in 10,000 — which falls well within the current safety threshold." Satellite trackers and astronomers have been tracking Kosmos 482 for years. In 2019, there were reports that the craft might fall within a year, which didn't happen. Astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands has been capturing the probe on camera for over a decade, and recently captured imagery suggesting its parachute might be out while it circles Earth. Some experts have cast doubt on that speculation, however. Langbroek writes that the 'tail'-like structure in Vandebergh's photos is likely the result of "camera/telescope shake and atmospheric distortion" Kosmos 482 was part of the Soviet Union's historic Venera program of Venus exploration, which landed the first probe on the planet's surface in 1970 with the Venera 7 craft, and later sent back the first color pictures of Venus' surface in 1982 with the Venera 13 probe. Stay up to date with the reentry of Kosmos 482 with ESA's live blog or Marco Langbroke's website SatTrackCam.
Gizmodo
06-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
53-Year-Old Soviet Spacecraft Will Plummet Back to Earth This Week
Kosmos 482 has been trapped in Earth's orbit for 53 years but its wandering journey is coming to an end. The failed Venus mission is expected to reenter through the atmosphere in a dramatic fall toward its home planet, where it may remain intact or scatter its bits across a still unknown location on either side of the equator. The Soviet-era spacecraft will plunge through Earth's atmosphere sometime between May 8 to 12. As of now, the exact location of where Kosmos 482 will crash-land on Earth is still unknown, with a preliminary estimate that stretches across large parts of the world on either side of the equator. It's also unclear whether the spacecraft will remain in one piece or if it will break apart during reentry, raining down bits of debris. Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in what is know Kazakhstan. The mission was an attempt by the Soviet space program to reach Venus, but it failed to gain enough velocity to enter a transfer trajectory toward the scorching hot planet. A malfunction resulted in an engine burn that wasn't sufficient to reach Venus' orbit, according to NASA. Since then, the spacecraft has been stuck in an elliptical orbit around Earth. The spacecraft entered a higher orbit measuring 130 by 6,089 miles (210 by 9,800 kilometers). Astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh recently captured images of Kosmos 482 in space ahead of its projected descent, and made a note of what appeared to be a parachute deployed from the spacecraft. 'At this point nothing is sure,' Vandebergh told Gizmodo in an email. 'In 2014 I had a first sign of this in my images but I didn't think seriously about this possibility. But when I processed the 2024 images taken 10 years later and saw the same thing, I thought I needed to report this possibility.' #Cosmos482 Note about the parachute possibility. Although still speculation as mentioned before, technically the images are correct. There are no tracking issues, scope issues and I not expect a similar atmosperic effect in images taken 10 years apart, if that would be the case. — Ralf Vandebergh (@ralfvandebergh) May 6, 2025 Even if the spacecraft's exposed parachute is hanging out in space, it's unlikely that it would still do its job of slowing down Kosmos' descent toward Earth. After failing to reach Venus, the spacecraft broke apart into four different pieces, with two of the smaller fragments reentering over Ashburton, New Zealand, two days after its launch. The two remaining pieces are a carrier bus and a lander probe, which together form a spherical pressure vessel weighing more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). Today, it's hard to determine where the remainder of the heat-resistant spacecraft will reenter Earth's atmosphere. Its current orbit indicates it should be anywhere between latitude 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south, according to Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker based in Leiden, the Netherlands. That barely narrows it down as this area includes the United States, South America, Africa and Australia, and most of Europe and Asia south of the Arctic Circle. The spacecraft's landing zone will become more clear as it approaches its doomed reentry. Another question is how much of it will survive the heat of atmospheric reentry. 'As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact,' Langbroek wrote in a blog update. Langbroek suggests an impact speed of around 150 miles per hour (242 kilometers per hour) if the lander does not break apart or largely burn up during reentry. The kinetic energy at impact is similar to that of a 15- to 21-inch-long (40- to 55-centimeter) meteorite fragment, according to Langbroek. Since our planet is mostly made up of water, the spacecraft will likely end up at the bottom of an ocean floor. The chances of it impacting an inhabited area, however, are not zero so it does pose some form of risk especially as its reentry date and location remain uncertain.
India Today
06-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Russian spacecraft could crash on Earth. It was planned to land on Venus in 1972
Russian spacecraft Cosmos 482, which was destined to land on Venus, is returning to crash on Earth nearly 53 years after it was 482 is a Soviet spacecraft launched on March 31, 1972, intended to land on Venus as part of the Venera program. However, due to a malfunction in its rocket stage, it failed to escape Earth's orbit and instead became stranded in low Earth satellite tracking data reveals that its parachutes could already be released after tumbling in low Earth orbit for over half a century. Satellite tracker Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands, who captured the high-resolution images, noted that Cosmos 482 is roughly 130 kilometres closer than the Starlink bus which, according to data, is around 1.3 meters by 2.7 meters. Telescopic images of the Soviet Cosmos 482 Venus descent craft. (Photo: Ralf Vandebergh) "Several frames seem to confirm what I thought to see in the 2014 images, [that] there is a compact ball but several frames show a weak elongated structure at one particular side of the ball," Vandebergh told He cautioned that more time is needed to better analyse what's showing up in the are hopeful that the spacecraft, which was built to survive the thick Venusian atmosphere, could survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and land intact on the crash is likely to take place on May 10 based on the current trajectory of the spacecraft was meant to deliver a lander to Venus to study the planet's atmosphere and surface conditions. Its Block L upper stage failed to fire correctly, preventing it from achieving the velocity needed to break free from Earth's of the spacecraft, including the Venus lander module, are still intact in orbit around Earth. Due to its dense heat shield, it could survive the fiery 482 is one of the few spacecraft in Earth's orbit that was originally designed for another planet. Its reentry could be spectacular when it happens.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Doomed Soviet spacecraft tumbling toward Earth may already have its parachute out, new images hint
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A doomed 53-year-old Soviet lander currently tumbling back to Earth could be trailing a parachute, new images of the spacecraft reveal. The Kosmos 482 probe, which launched in 1972, was built to land on Venus as part of the former U.S.S.R.'s Venera program. But a malfunction in the rocket it was mounted on caused the spacecraft to split in two, with the main body crashing back to Earth in 1981 and the lander section remaining trapped in orbit ever since. Now, after news broke that the lander will finally return to our planet sometime around May 10, satellite trackers have analyzed photos of the craft and revealed an unknown object trailing behind it. "Some structure is connected to the capsule," Ralf Vandebergh, a Dutch astronomer and astrophotographer, wrote on the social platform X. "Not impossible that it's the parachute, but this is still speculation!" Kosmos 482 was built as a sister probe to Venera 8, which launched in July 1972 to become the second craft (following Venera 7) to land on Venus. Once there, Venera 8 beamed data from Venus for just over 50 minutes before being fried by the planet's blisteringly hot atmosphere. Related: 5,000-pound European satellite burns up over Pacific Ocean after 30 years in orbit Designed to survive passage through Venus' atmosphere, the 1,091-pound (495 kilograms), 3-foot (1 meter) lander is likely to return to Earth intact. RELATED STORIES —A Chinese spacecraft burned up over Los Angeles. Earthquake sensors mapped its path through the atmosphere. —Falling metal space junk is changing Earth's upper atmosphere in ways we don't fully understand —ISS dodges its 39th piece of potentially hazardous space junk. Experts say it won't be the last. Vanderbergh snagged this first set of high-resolution images in July 2024 and posted them on X on April 29, 2025. In side-by-side comparisons with photos captured in June 2014, both sets of images appear to show "a compact ball" with "a weak elongated structure at one particular side of the ball" appearing in several frames, he said. Even if this trailing material is indeed the lander's parachute, it's unlikely that it will survive the craft's approximate 150 mph (242 km/h) reentry through our planet's atmosphere. "If it is true that this is the parachute that came out a long time ago in space, this would mean it is likely to burn up on reentry and will have no function in slowing down the spacecraft," Vanderberg wrote on X. With satellite watchers avidly tracking the spacecraft's descent, further images and up-to-date projections of where it will land are sure to follow. Watch this space.
