A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half century after its failed launch to Venus.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking agency confirmed its uncontrolled re-entry, based on analysis and the disappearance of the spacecraft from tracking on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated it had re-entered the atmosphere after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It was not immediately known where the half-tonne spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of it survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said prior to the event that some and perhaps all of it could come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.
The chances of anyone being hit by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander – an estimated 1 metre across – was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 495kg.
After the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty, along with the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.
As of Saturday morning, US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft’s demise as it collected and analysed data from orbit.
The military unit routinely monitors dozens of re-entries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart – and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers – was that it was more likely to survive re-entry, according to officials.
It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers, who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.
