A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 has finally returned to Earth after 53 years in orbit. Known as Kosmos 482, the probe was originally designed to travel to Venus, but a suspected engine failure cut the mission short shortly after launch. Since then, it has stayed in low Earth orbit, gradually descending as its orbit decayed. According to several government space agencies, it reentered Earth’s atmosphere on May 10 and likely crashed into the Indian Ocean.
Kosmos 482 was part of the Venera program, meaning it was built to survive the intense heat and pressure of Venus’s atmosphere. Its tough heat shield also allowed it to withstand the reentry, unlike most space debris that burns up. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell estimated the spacecraft hit Earth at several hundred kilometers per hour – roughly the speed of a commercial jet.
While the idea of a car-sized space object falling from the sky might seem alarming, the risk to humans was extremely low. With much of the planet covered in ocean or sparsely populated, experts said the odds of it hitting someone were only about one in several thousand.
Any surviving pieces recovered still belong to Russia, as the rules mapped out in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty state that the launching country keeps ownership of its hardware, even after it crashes.
Though this event passed quietly, it highlights a growing concern: thousands of old satellites and bits of space junk are still orbiting Earth. One day, they’ll all come down too. Managing future reentries – and perhaps even cleaning up debris before it falls – will be a key challenge for the next generation of space engineers. Maybe your ideas will be part of the solution.