Out-of-control Soviet spacecraft CRASHES into Earth after getting stuck in orbit for 50 years on doomed Venus mission
A SOVIET-era spacecraft has crashed down to Earth more than half a century after its failed launch to Venus.
The space vessel hurtled back down in an "uncontrolled reentry", the European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed.
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The European Space Agency debris office agreed that the spacecraft had reentered - after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It's not yet clear where the speeding spaceship crash landed - or how much of it survived the fiery descent.
Experts said ahead of time that the wreckage could arrive whole, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus - the solar system's hottest planet.
The hunk of space junk, called Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, was first launched in 1972 with the intention of it touching down on Earth's neighbouring planet.
But this mission failed - and the probe has been stuck in low Earth orbit ever since.
Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in space situational awareness at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands predicted the lander's return in a blog post.
Scientists said there was a very slim chance of the machine smashing into people or buildings.
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