Failed Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 came crashing back down to Earth after more than half a century in space – and scientists have now confirmed where it ended up
The landing spot of a failed Soviet spacecraft that came crashing down to Earth at the weekend has been revealed. Kosmos 482, was launched by the USSR in 1972 and once bound for Venus, but a badly configured timer onboard the probe meant it never left our planet’s orbit.
Instead, the lander section of the spacecraft spent decades spiralling back towards Earth, catching the eye of space agencies, the US military and astronomers, who monitored it closely. In the last few weeks, experts announced that the spacecraft was due to enter Earth’s atmosphere on May 10, and said it could land anywhere between 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south latitude – sparking frenzied speculation as to where it would end up.
In the end, Kosmos 482’s re-entry to Earth after more than half a century in space went largely unnoticed, and it was initially unclear where it had landed, reports Manchester Evening News.
On Saturday morning, the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed that the Kosmos 482 descent craft was not spotted by radar systems over Germany at the time it was expected to pass. The ESA said “it is most likely that the re-entry has already occurred”.
But later that day, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos reported: “The spacecraft entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 9:24 Moscow time [6.24am UK time], 560 km west of Middle Andaman Island, and fell into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta.”
Because the lander was designed to withstand entry into Venus’ harsh atmosphere, it is possible it survived re-entry, according to NASA. The space agency said Kosmos 482 landed in the ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia.
No damage or injuries were reported, and the lack of any fireball sightings suggests it landed far out to sea – and far away from any populated areas.
This was largely in line with astronomers’ expectations, and ESA had stated that the “risk of any satellite re-entry causing injury” is “extremely remote.”
The space agency added: “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.”
However, it certainly will not be the last man-made structure that comes crashing back to Earth, and the spacecraft’s return highlights the growing risk of potentially hazardous space debris orbiting Earth.
Kosmos 482 was just one of more than 1.2 million pieces of space debris measuring larger than centimetre in size, according to a report by the ESA.
Satellites or rocket bodies are now re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere more than three times a day, with orbital collisions and uncontrolled re-entries happening increasingly often.