A Soviet-era spacecraft has finally returned to Earth – 53 years after it was launched.
Kosmos 482, a Venus lander launched by the Soviet Union in 1972, reentered Earth’s atmosphere on May 10, 2025, crashing into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia. Originally intended to study Venus, the spacecraft was stranded in Earth orbit due to a rocket malfunction shortly after launch.
Designed to survive the extreme heat and pressure of Venus’s atmosphere, the 1,190-pound probe may have survived reentry largely intact – a rarity for falling space hardware. Astronomers captured images of the spacecraft during one of its final orbits just before dawn.
The event draws renewed attention to Earth’s growing space debris problem. According to the European Space Agency, roughly three large pieces of space junk reenter Earth’s atmosphere every day and that number is expected to rise as satellite megaconstellations expand.
Though Kosmos 482’s reentry caused no known damage, it’s a reminder of the long-lived remnants of the space race still circling above us and the challenges they pose.
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