A Soviet Probe Is About to Crash Into Earth. The Disturbing Part: It Was Built to Survive Hell

The Kosmos 482 probe, a piece of Soviet space history, is about to end its 53-year odyssey in orbit—and in the most unsettling way possible: by falling back to Earth.

Context. Launched by the Soviet Union on March 31, 1972, the spacecraft was headed for Venus, but a post-launch failure left it stranded in Earth orbit. Now, more than five decades later, its final descent is imminent. It could reenter the atmosphere around May 10.

The spacecraft doesn’t contain nuclear material, and the risk of damage to property or injury is low—but not zero. Nobody wants to be hit by a half-ton object falling from space, right?

Kosmos 482. A twin of the successful Venera 8 mission, this probe launched just four days later. But unlike its sister mission, it never made it to Venus. The Blok-NVL upper stage of the Molniya rocket shut down early, leaving Kosmos 482 stuck in a high elliptical orbit around Earth (initially 128 x 6,090 miles).

True to the secrecy of the era, the Soviet Union never admitted the failure and instead gave the probe a generic name: Kosmos 482. Three days later, several fragments from the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere and landed in New Zealand, where people recovered parts like cylindrical fuel tanks. Other pieces associated with the mission reentered in 1981 and 1983.

Built for Venus’ inferno. The object that has survived in orbit is the mission’s descent capsule, built to land on Venus. The sphere measures about 3.28 feet in diameter and weighs roughly 1,102 pounds.

Here’s the disturbing part: this capsule was engineered to survive the extreme heat of Venus, which averages 867 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface. Satellite analyst Marco Langbroek says the capsule might survive reentry through Earth’s atmosphere relatively intact—although its trajectory and age lower the odds of an intact impact.

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With the parachute deployed? The capsule’s impending return has drawn attention from satellite observers. Amateur astronomer Ralf Vandebergh captured telescopic images that appear to show a deployed parachute.

“There is a compact ball but several frames show a weak elongated structure at one particular side of the ball,” he told Space.com. He also noted the object may be tumbling, making it visible only in flashes.

How to watch the reentry. Kosmos 482 circles Earth every 90 minutes at a 52-degree inclination. This means reentry could happen anywhere between 52° north and 52° south latitude. Space-Track and analysts like Langbroek estimate reentry around May 10, 2025, with a two- to three-day uncertainty window that will shrink as the date nears.

The spacecraft will make a series of visible passes across the Northern Hemisphere at sunrise around the expected reentry window. Sites like Heavens Above already show predicted passes for Kosmos 482.

A relic from the Moon-landing era returns to Earth. Kosmos 482’s fall serves as a stark reminder of the golden age of space exploration—and the heated race to Venus that followed the Moon landings.

This relic from 1972—the last year a human walked on the Moon—will return to a radically different world, now crowded with thousands of satellites and growing fields of orbital debris.

Images | NASA

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