Latest news with #VeneraProgram
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
After 53 years in space, failed Soviet probe Kosmos 482 falls back to Earth
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.
Russia Today
10-05-2025
- Science
- Russia Today
USSR-launched spacecraft falls into Indian Ocean
A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 has crashed into the Indian Ocean, according to Russia's space agency Roscosmos. The Kosmos 482 probe had been orbiting Earth for over five decades after a failed mission to Venus. Roscosmos reported that the spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Saturday morning, and fell into the ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia. The descent was monitored by the Automated Warning System for Hazardous Situations in Near-Earth Space. No damage or injuries were reported. Kosmos 482 was launched on March 31, 1972, as part of the Soviet Union's program aimed at exploring Venus. However, due to a malfunction in the upper stage of its launch vehicle, the spacecraft failed to escape Earth's gravity and remained in an elliptical orbit. The probe's lander module, designed to withstand the harsh conditions of Venus, was built with a robust titanium shell. This construction raised the possibility that parts of the spacecraft might survive re-entry. The Soviet Union's Venera program, active from 1961 to the early 1980s, achieved several milestones in planetary exploration. Notably, in 1970, the Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to transmit data from the surface of another planet, and the Venera 9 sent back the first images from Venus' surface in 1975. Overall, the program successfully landed multiple probes on Venus, providing valuable data on its atmosphere and surface conditions. According to Roscosmos, thousands of defunct spacecraft remain in Earth's orbit. In the past year alone, 1,981 space objects of both natural and artificial origin entered the atmosphere. 'In fact, about five objects fall to Earth each day, with every seventh weighing more than 500 kg. We can observe them at night as 'falling stars.' Instances of material damage are rare. There have been no injuries among people, the agency's press service noted earlier this week.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 crashes back to Earth, disappearing into Indian Ocean after 53 years in orbit
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. After 53 years stuck in space, a Soviet spacecraft designed to land on Venus has finally crash-landed back on Earth. The Kosmos 482 probe, a relic from the first Space Race, crashed harmlessly into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia at 2:24 a.m. EDT (6:24 a.m. GMT), the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced on Telegram. No damage or injuries have been reported, and it remains unclear whether the lander reached the ocean in one piece. Launched in 1972, Kosmos 482 was intended to be part of the Soviet Union's Venera program that collected data from Venus. But a malfunction in the upper stage of the Soyuz rocket booster that lofted the ship skyward scrubbed its mission, leaving the craft with just enough velocity to be marooned in an elliptical orbit around our planet. Now, less than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from where it first launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, the probe's long journey has finally ended. "The Kosmos-482 spacecraft ceased to exist, deorbiting and falling into the Indian Ocean," Roscosmos wrote in the translated Telegram statement. "The descent of the spacecraft was monitored by the Automated Warning System for Hazardous Situations in Near-Earth Space." 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 the planet's hellish surface for just over 50 minutes before being fried. Related: 5,000-pound European satellite burns up over Pacific Ocean after 30 years in orbit Following its failed launch, Kosmos 482 broke into several pieces consisting of the main body and the lander. The former reentered Earth's atmosphere nine years after launch on May 5 1981, while the descent craft remained trapped inside a slowly decaying orbit that has persisted for more than 50 years. Being built to survive passage through Venus' atmosphere means that if the 1,091-pound (495 kilograms), 3-foot (1 meter) lander is recovered it will likely be mostly intact. Under a United Nations treaty, any surviving debris from the spaceship will belong to Russia. The craft's uneventful landing comes as a relief, but scientists have always stressed it was unlikely to harm anyone. 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. "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," The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded nonprofit organization, wrote in an FAQ. "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." The spaceship's dramatic return highlights the growing risk of potentially hazardous debris orbiting our skies. Four of China's Long March 5B boosters — the workhorses of the country's space program — fell to Earth between 2020 and 2022, raining debris down on the Ivory Coast, Borneo and the Indian Ocean. And in 2021 and 2022, debris from falling SpaceX rockets smashed into a farm in Washington state and landed on a sheep farm in Australia. Space agencies around the world try to keep tabs on the more than 30,000 largest pieces of this junk, but many more pieces of debris are simply too small to monitor.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Failed Soviet Venus lander Kosmos 482 crashes to Earth after 53 years in orbit
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A failed Soviet Venus lander's long space odyssey has come to an end. The Kosmos 482 probe crashed to Earth today (May 10) after circling our planet for more than five decades. Reentry occurred at 2:24 a.m. ET (0624 GMT or 9:24 a.m. Moscow time) over the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, according to Russia's space agency Roscosmos. Kosmos 482 appears to have fallen harmlessly into the sea. That's just one estimate, however; other space agencies and tracking organizations predicted different reentry locations, from the South Asian mainland to the eastern Pacific. It's unclear when or if we'll get a definitive answer to where Kosmos 482 came down. Astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project caught an image of Kosmos 482 during one of its final orbits as it passed over Rome, Italy just before sunrise on May 10. In the photo, the probe is "visible as a trail entering the field of view from the top and pointing to the bottom right corner," Masi wrote on his website. "The picture is the sum of four images, this is why the trail of Cosmos 482 looks dashed." Earth isn't the planet that Kosmos 482 was supposed to land on. The spacecraft was part of the Soviet Union's Venera program, which sent a fleet of probes to Venus in the 1960s, '70s and early '80s. Kosmos 482 launched toward Earth's hellishly hot sister planet in 1972, but a problem with its rocket stranded the spacecraft in an elliptical orbit around Earth. For the next 53 years, atmospheric drag pulled the probe down slowly but surely, leading to today's dramatic denouement. Most large pieces of space junk — decrepit satellites and spent rocket bodies, for example — break apart during their fiery trips back to Earth, creating artificial meteor showers. It's possible that Kosmos 482 made it down in one piece today, however, given that it was designed to survive a high-speed trip through Venus' thick atmosphere. Kosmos 482 is about 3.3 feet (1 meter) wide and weighs about 1,190 pounds (495 kilograms). If it didn't break apart during reentry, it likely hit Earth's surface going about 150 mph (240 kph), according to Dutch satellite tracker Marco Langbroek. In that scenario, "the kinetic energy at impact is similar to that of a 40-55 cm [16 to 22 inches] large (after ablation) meteorite fragment," Langbroek wrote in a blog post recently. Related stories: — 3 big hunks of space junk crash to Earth every day — and it's only going to get worse — New images of Soviet Venus lander falling to Earth suggest its parachute may be out — Kessler Syndrome and the space debris problem Kosmos 482's fall draws attention to our planet's growing space junk problem. On average, three sizeable pieces of debris crash back to Earth every day — and that number is only going to go up. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), Earth orbit hosts about 14,240 satellites, 11,400 of which are active. Most of the operational craft belong to SpaceX's Starlink broadband megaconstellation, which currently consists of about 7,200 satellites but is growing all the time. Other megaconstellations are under construction as well. For example, Amazon just launched the first big batch of spacecraft for its Project Kuiper broadband network, which will eventually harbor 3,200 satellites, if all goes according to plan. And rockets have lofted satellites for two different Chinese megaconstellations, each of which is designed to host at least 13,000 spacecraft. "With the increasing space traffic, we expect that reentry frequencies increase further in the future," ESA officials wrote in a Kosmos 482 blog post. The risk of injury or property damage from each individual reentry is very small, given that much debris burns up in the air and the pieces that don't usually come down in the ocean or on unoccupied land. But as the reentry volume goes up, so too do the odds of a destructive impact. There are other potential consequences as well. For instance, researchers are calling attention to the pollution created by reentering satellites, which could damage Earth's ozone layer and also affect our planet's climate. Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:10 p.m. ET on May 10 to state that tracking organizations predicted several different possible reentry locales for Kosmos 482.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Soviet Kosmos 482 spacecraft crashes into an unknown site on Earth
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 (464 C). 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. This article was originally published on
