The remains of a spacecraft launched by the U.S.S.R. in 1972 on a doomed mission to land on Venus could strike Earth between May 7 and 13 in a rare uncontrolled re-entry. Marooned in Earth orbit for 53 years, Kosmos 482 was built to withstand extreme temperatures on Venus, so it will survive re-entry if its heat shield is intact, but exactly where and when it will strike Earth is unknown.
A space probe called Kosmos 482 sent to explore Venus by the U.S.S.R. in 1972 but marooned in Earth ... More
Kosmos 482, or Cosmos 482, was launched on March 31, 1972, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which was then part of the Soviet Union. It was designed to parachute into and land on Venus.
Shortly after its launch, a malfunction put it into an elliptical Earth orbit that caused it to get as close as 200 miles (320 kilometers) but as far as almost 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers). Since then its orbit has decayed considerably.
Instead of landing on Venus in 1972, this descent craft looks set to land on Earth in 2025, with Marco Langbroek, a satellite analyst tracking Kosmos 482, predicting it to reenter at 06:01 UTC on Saturday, May 10, plus or minus 2.8 days.
That makes the window for re-entry Wednesday, May 7 through Tuesday, May 13, though exactly when it lands will likely remain unknown until hours before it strikes. Heavens-Above.com has data on how and when to see Kosmos 482 in the night sky, though it refers to it as the Venera 8 landing module.
The spacecraft weighs about 1,091 lbs (495 kilograms), and when it strikes Earth, it will be traveling at around 150 mph (242 km/h). It could land anywhere between 52 degrees north and south of the equator. According to the United States Geological Survey, Earth's surface is 71% water, so statistically it's likely to land on the ocean. However, that region includes large swathes of Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia.
While most spacecraft don't survive re-entry or/and a crash landing, Kosmos 482 was built to withstand extremely high pressure and temperatures on Venus. “The Kosmos 482 Descent Craft was designed to survive the dense atmosphere of Venus,” Langbroek told SpaceWeather.com. “It will therefore likely survive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere intact and make a crash landing. This will therefore be a high-interest re-entry.”
According to NASA, Kosmos 482 was part of the U.S.S.R.’s Venera 8 mission to send two near-identical spacecraft to land on Venus and send back data on the planet’s surface temperature and pressure. The first spacecraft launched successfully on March 27, 1972, and landed on Venus on April 6, 1972. The second launched four days later but failed to leave Earth's orbit after an upper-stage booster failure in the Soyuz rocket. All U.S.S.R. missions that remained in Earth orbit were renamed Kosmos/Cosmos. Between 1961 and 1984, the U.S.S.R.’s Venera program sent thirteen probes to Venus.