Soviet spacecraft Cosmos 482 expected to crash back to Earth after 'final death plunge'
NASA said Monday that Cosmos 482 will return to Earth sometime between Wednesday, May 7, and May 13. The spacecraft is most likely to begin its decent on Saturday, May 10, though.
The space agency said that since the probe was designed to withstand entry into Venus' atmosphere, it is possible that parts of it will survive reentry.
The spacecraft was meant to be a Venus probe. But it failed to escape low Earth orbit following its launch in 1972, according to NASA.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian, told NPR that the probe is in its "final death plunge."
"There's a not-trivial chance that it could hit somewhere where it damages property, and there's a small chance − but it's like one in thousands − that it could hurt someone," he said.
The name Cosmos (or Kosmos) was given to Soviet spacecraft that remained in Earth's orbit beginning in 1962, regardless of whether that was their intended final destination − according to NASA.
The space agency points to evidence from Soviet and non-Soviet sources and historical documents to substantiate its belief that Cosmos 482 was intended to reach Venus.
The probe was launched four days after the Venera 8 atmospheric probe that made it to Venus and had an identical design, NASA said.
Soviet planetary missions were initially put into Earth's orbit as a launch platform with a rocket engine and attached probe, according to NASA. The probes were then launched toward their targets with an engine burn with a duration of roughly four minutes.
Cosmos 482 separated into four pieces, with two pieces decaying in low Earth orbit within 48 hours and the remaining pieces remaining in higher orbit. It is thought that a malfunction during the engine burn left the craft unable to reach the velocity needed to escape orbit and reach Venus, according to NASA.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cosmos 482: Soviet spacecraft to return to Earth after over 50 years
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