Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 re-enters earth after 53 years, see details
Soviet spacecraft venus lander, Kosmos 482 re-entered earth after 53 years. On May 10, 2025, the spacecraft returned to earth at 2:24 a.m. ET (0624 GMT), splashing into the Indian Ocean off Jakrta’s western coast, Indonesia, informed Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency.
It may have appeared that spacecraft have landed safely in the ocean, the precise impact site might be somewhat disputed. Different space agencies have estimated differently where the Soviet space craft might have re-entered into the earth’s atmosphere.
Although Roscosmos tracked it over the Indian Ocean off Indonesia, others estimated places from South Asian continent itself to the Pacific Ocean east of it. This inability shows how hard it is to trace space objects after re-entering the atmosphere after remaining in the orbit for so long.
Kosmos 482, was launched in the early 1970’s. It was affected by a malfunction on the way to Venus. An unplanned problem occurred due to a timer malfunction that resulted in a premature shutdown of the engine. Due to which it was stuck in Earth’s orbit for over 50 years.
Before it perished, Astronomer Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project caught a picture of the probe as it did one last orbit of the earth. The probe was caught while passing from Rome, Italy, on May 10 as one of its final passes through the city.
