On 10 May 2025, the Cosmos-482 descent craft reentered Earth's atmosphere after 53 years in orbit. It was designed to land on Venus, but it never escaped Earth’s gravity.

A fragment of the failed Soviet Venus probe Cosmos 482 is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere around May 10, though experts say the exact timing and location remain uncertain.

Back to Article List Failed Soviet-era spacecraft returned to Earth on Saturday Debris from the 50 year-old probe Cosmos 482 crash-landed into the Indian Ocean over the weekend.

A Soviet spacecraft that's been stuck in low Earth orbit ever since it launched in 1972 has finally crashed back down to our planet. Kosmos 482 rocketed into space more than 50 years ago on a ...

Since dormant spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere on a regular basis, most are non-stories, but Kosmos 482 was something special. It was originally one of the Soviet Union's Venera series of probes ...

Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as 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 ...

News of Cosmos 482's impending crash landing has been met with questions regarding just precisely when – and where – the decaying remnants of the probe could come careening down.

Last week, boffins predicted Cosmos 482 would crash back through our atmosphere sometime between May 7 and 13 – and it appears they were spot on with their forecast. One of those, Space ...