{"id":27278,"date":"2025-05-07T09:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T09:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27278"},"modified":"2025-05-07T09:28:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T09:28:50","slug":"what-to-know-about-kosmos-482-a-soviet-spacecraft-returning-to-earth-after-53-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27278","title":{"rendered":"What to Know About Kosmos-482, a Soviet Spacecraft Returning to Earth After 53 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kosmos-482, which was headed to Venus, is expected to re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere by the end of this weekend. Experts don\u2019t yet know where it may come down.<\/p>\n

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A robotic Soviet spacecraft has been adrift in space for 53 years. It will return to Earth later this week.<\/p>\n

Kosmos-482 launched in March 1972. If all had gone well, it would have landed on the sweltering surface of Venus and become the ninth of the uncrewed Soviet Venera missions to the planet. Instead, a rocket malfunction left it stranded in Earth orbit. Kosmos-482 has been slowly spiraling back toward our world ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this artifact that was meant to go to Venus 50 years ago and was lost and forgotten for half a century,\u201d said Jonathan McDowell<\/a>, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who maintains a public catalog<\/a> of objects in space. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s going to get its moment in atmospheric entry \u2014 albeit on the wrong planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cloaked in a protective heat shield, the spacecraft, weighing roughly 1,050 pounds, was designed to survive its plunge through the toxic Venusian atmosphere. That means there\u2019s a good chance it will survive its dive through this one, and could make it to the surface at least partly intact.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, the risk of any injuries on the ground is low.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not worried \u2014 I\u2019m not telling all my friends to go to the basement for this,\u201d said Darren McKnight<\/a>, senior technical fellow at LeoLabs<\/a>, a company that tracks objects in orbit and monitors Kosmos-482 six times a day. \u201cUsually about once a week we have a large object re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere where some remnants of it will survive to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n