Soviet Venus Probe Kosmos 482 Falls into Indian Ocean After 53 Years in Orbit

96 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Updated May 10, 2025, 01:23 PM

The long-dormant Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482, stranded in orbit for more than half a century, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on 10 May 2025 and splashed into the Indian Ocean, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.

Roscosmos reported that the 500-kilogram descent module broke up at about 06:24 UTC, with surviving debris landing roughly 560 kilometres west of India’s Middle Andaman Island, near Indonesia. No injuries or damage on the ground have been recorded.

Kosmos 482 was launched on 31 March 1972 as part of the USSR’s Venera programme but never left low-Earth orbit because of a rocket malfunction. Built to survive the extreme heat and pressure of Venus, its titanium casing and rugged construction helped the probe endure 53 years of orbital decay.

In the days preceding the event, the European Space Agency and other tracking groups forecast an uncontrolled re-entry between 9 and 10 May, stressing that the probability of impact on populated areas was “infinitesimally small.” The remote ocean splashdown confirmed those assessments and closed a unique chapter in Cold-War space history.

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#Soviet #Kosmos 482 #Earth #Indian Ocean #Russia #Roscosmos #India #Middle Andaman Island #Indonesia #USSR #Venera #Venus #European Space Agency

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Sources

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MSN Deutschland

@msnde

Soviet probe Kosmos 482 plunged uncontrollably into the Indian Ocean after half a century https://t.co/7agsSnYMWB

NEXTA

@nexta_tv

🛰️ The Soviet spacecraft Kosmos-482, launched in 1972, has fallen into the Indian Ocean The descent of the spacecraft from orbit was monitored by the Automated System for Hazardous Situation Warning in Near-Earth Space. The spacecraft was launched in 1972 for the exploration of https://t.co/V05umURXQ6

cnn_co_jp

@cnn_co_jp

The forecast that the former Soviet spacecraft that failed to land on Venus will fall to Earth https://t.co/XRfUVhsQwY A space probe from the former Soviet Union era, which was designed for the purpose of a soft landing on Venus but did not escape the Earth's orbit, and decades have passed as it is, is expected to fall to Earth from the night of the 9th to the early morning of the 10th US Eastern Time.