A Soviet-Era Spacecraft Is About to Fall Back to Earth

A relic from the early days of space exploration is making an unexpected — and uncontrolled — return to Earth. A Soviet-era spacecraft, originally launched toward Venus in the 1970s, is expected to plunge through Earth’s atmosphere in the coming weeks, more than half a century after its mission failed.

The spacecraft, known as Kosmos 482, was part of a series of ambitious Venus missions by the Soviet Union during the Cold War space race. Launched in 1972, the probe was intended to land on Venus’s surface and collect data, but a rocket malfunction left it stranded in Earth’s orbit. While most of the craft reentered and burned up within a decade, one key part — a nearly 500-kilogram (1,000+ pound) landing capsule — has been circling the planet ever since.

Now, over 53 years later, experts predict its long orbital journey is nearing an end. According to Dutch space debris expert Marco Langbroek of Delft University of Technology, the capsule could reenter Earth’s atmosphere around May 10. However, its exact landing spot remains unknown.

“While not without risk, we should not be too worried,” Langbroek said in a statement. The object is relatively small compared to modern satellites and space debris, and while it could survive reentry thanks to its heavy-duty heat shield — originally designed to endure the scorching descent through Venus’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere — the chance of it causing harm is minimal.

Likely to Land at Sea

In fact, Langbroek compares the risk to that of a random meteorite strike, which happens several times a year. “You run a bigger risk of getting hit by lightning in your lifetime,” he added.

The spacecraft is expected to reenter somewhere between 51.7° north and south latitude, a vast band stretching from cities like London and Edmonton in the north to South America’s Cape Horn in the south. Given that the majority of Earth’s surface is ocean, Langbroek believes it’s likely to splash down at sea.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted that if the heat shield fails during reentry — a possibility after five decades in space — the capsule will likely burn up in the atmosphere. But if it holds, it could come crashing down largely intact at speeds of up to 150 mph (242 km/h).

A Rare Artifact of the Space Race

Kosmos 482’s reentry marks a rare event: the fall of a 1970s-era interplanetary spacecraft that never made it to its destination. It serves as a reminder of the intense competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the space race, and how some remnants of those early missions still orbit our planet today.