A part of a failed Soviet Venus mission is expected to crash to Earth around May 10th after spending over five decades in orbit.
Kosmos 482, launched by the USSR in 1972, was intended to land on Venus but failed due to a rocket booster malfunction, leaving its components stranded in space.
While some debris from the spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere in the 1980s, a major piece—a 1,091-pound (495 kg) lander—has remained in orbit and is now slowly descending. Dutch satellite tracker Marco Langbroek reports that the descent will be uncontrolled, with uncertainty surrounding whether the lander will burn up or survive reentry.
The lander was originally designed to endure Venus’s extreme atmosphere, raising concerns that it could make it to the ground intact.
However, experts emphasize the risk to humans is extremely low—comparable to the odds of being struck by a meteorite.
Langbroek reassured the public, stating, “You run a bigger risk of getting hit by lightning in your lifetime.”
