An artistic illustration showing a satellite falling towards Earth. (Image credit: Getty Images)
After 53 years in space, the Soviet spacecraft destined for landing on Venus has finally made an emergency landing on Earth.
The Kosmos 482 probe, a monument to the first space race, fell harmlessly into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, at 2:24 a.m. ET (6:24 a.m. GMT), Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Telegram. No damage or casualties were reported, and it was unclear whether the lander reached the ocean intact.
Launched in 1972, Cosmos 482 was intended to be part of the Soviet Venera program, which was collecting data about the planet Venus.
But a failure in the upper stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the craft into space derailed its mission, leaving it with just enough speed to remain stuck in an elliptical orbit around Earth. Now, less than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) from its first launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the probe's long journey is over.
“The Kosmos-482 spacecraft ceased to exist, leaving orbit and falling into the Indian Ocean,” reads a translation of the Roscosmos statement on Telegram. “The descent of the spacecraft was monitored by the Automated Warning System for Potentially Dangerous Situations in Near-Earth Space.”
Cosmos 482 was designed as a sister probe to Venera 8, which was launched in July 1972 and became the second spacecraft (after Venera 7) to successfully land on Venus. After landing, Venera 8 transmitted data from the planet's extreme surface for just over 50 minutes before burning up.
After the failed launch, Cosmos 482 split into several parts, including the main body and the landing module. The former reentered the Earth's atmosphere nine years after launch, on May 5, 1981, while the landing module remained in a slowly converging orbit that has persisted for more than 50 years.
Designed to pass through Venus' atmosphere, it means that if the 1,091-pound (495 kg), 3-foot (1 meter) lander is found, it will likely be intact. Under a United Nations agreement, any surviving debris from the spacecraft will belong to Russia.
It was a relief that the spacecraft landed without incident, although scientists have always stressed that it was unlikely to harm anyone.
“While the risk is not zero, the odds of someone on Earth being struck by lightning are significantly higher than the odds of being injured by Cosmos 482,” the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded nonprofit, wrote in an FAQ. “If it remains intact all the way to the surface, we project a risk of 0.4 in 10,000 — well within current safety levels.”
The spacecraft’s return highlights the growing risk of potentially dangerous debris in orbit. Four of China’s Long March 5B boosters — key elements of the country’s space program — fell to Earth between 2020 and 2022, dumping debris on the Ivory Coast, Borneo and the Indian Ocean. In 2021 and 2022, debris from falling SpaceX rockets crashed into a farm in Washington state and landed on a sheep farm in Australia.
Space agencies around the world are trying to track more than 30,000 of the largest pieces of this debris, but many other pieces are too small to track.
Sourse: www.livescience.com
