Soviet Spacecraft Crash Lands on Earth After a Journey of Half a Century

Kosmos-482, a spacecraft bound for Venus in 1972, was a time capsule from the Cold War when superpowers had broad ambitions for exploring the solar system.

After looping through space for 53 years, a wayward Soviet spacecraft called Kosmos-482 returned to Earth, entering the planet’s atmosphere at 9:24 a.m. Moscow time on Saturday, according to Roscosmos, the state corporation that runs the Russian space program.

Designed to land on the surface of Venus, Kosmos-482 may have remained intact during its plunge. It splashed down in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, Roscosmos said.

Kosmos-482 was launched on March 31, 1972, but became stranded in Earth’s orbit after one of its rocket boosters shut down prematurely. The spacecraft’s return to Earth was a reminder of the Cold War competition that prompted science fiction-like visions of Earthbound powers projecting themselves out into the solar system.

“It recalls a time when the Soviet Union was adventurous in space — when we were all maybe more adventurous in space,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks objects launched into orbit. “It’s a bit of a bittersweet moment in that sense.”

The Venera Program: Soviet Ambitions at Venus

While America had won the race to the moon, the Soviet Union, through its Venera program, kept its sights on Venus, Earth’s twisted sister.

From 1961 to 1984, the Soviets launched 29 spacecraft toward the shrouded world next door. Many of those missions failed, but more than a dozen did not. The Venera spacecraft surveilled Venus from orbit, collected atmospheric observations while gently descending through its toxic clouds, scooped and studied soil samples and sent back the first, and only, pictures we have from the planet’s surface.

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