Soviet Kosmos 482 spacecraft crashes into an unknown site on Earth

A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a failed mission to Venus is believed to have crashed back to Earth early on Saturday morning.

A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a failed mission to Venus is believed to have crashed back to Earth early on Saturday morning.

The European Space Agency, which was monitoring the craft’s uncontrolled descent, said it was last spotted by radar over Germany. At the time of its expected crash, radar could no longer detect the Kosmos 482, concluding that “it is most likely that the reentry has already occurred.”

No injuries or damage have been reported.

A replica of the Venera 4, the first probe to transmit data from the atmosphere of another planet, similar to the Kosmos 482 that was launched afterward and became stuck in Earth orbit.NASAThe Kosmos 482 spacecraft was part of the USSR’s Venera program, a series of probes that were developed to research the planet Venus. Ten of those missions successfully landed on the hot, barren planet, but the rocket carrying Kosmos 482 malfunctioned. Its upper stage, which contained the descent craft, got stuck in Earth orbit.

Over the following 53 years, the approximately 3-foot-wide, 1,069-pound spacecraft circled the Earth in an ever-smaller elliptical orbit, until it came close enough to fall into the planet’s atmosphere.