53 years after its launch, a Soviet space probe crashes on earth

Originally, this mission was to send the probe to Venus for scientific measures. Unfortunately, shortly after its launch, the device underwent a critical failure on its upper floor which prevented it from reaching the speed necessary to escape from the earth’s attraction. For 53 years, Cosmos-482 has been trapped in terrestrial orbit.

A return to earth after 53 years in orbit

During the decades which followed its launch, fragments of the promising rocket fell on our planet, more precisely in the 80s. But the Venusian landing capsule remained in orbit until this weekend by continuing its slow orbital degradation.

The spherical capsule was about a meter in diameter for 500 kg, a threat in the event of a fall in an inhabited area. The problem: his conception was designed to resist the hostile atmosphere of Venus, which allows him to cross that of the earth without completely disintegrating.

Spatial authorities have monitored its trajectory in recent weeks. “The descent of the vessel was monitored by the automated alert system for dangerous situations in space near the earth”said the Russian space agency Roscosmos in a press release, as reported The Internet user.

Finally, the atmospheric back to school took place on Saturday morning, without incident. According to Roscosmos, the probe entered the atmosphere “560 kilometers west of the island of Middle Andaman, and fell into the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta”. The debris have damaged in a maritime area far from any population with no damage.