The "Cosmos-482" spacecraft, launched back in 1972 as part of the Venus exploration program, has completed its nearly half-century stay in orbit. The object entered the Earth's atmosphere.

"Venera-4"
"Venera-4"

Today, it left its orbit and entered the dense layers of the atmosphere, after which it fell into the Indian Ocean. According to TsNIIMash, the spacecraft ceased to exist at 9:24 Moscow time, approximately 560 km west of Middle Andaman Island, near the coast of Indonesia, west of Jakarta.

Despite the fact that "Cosmos-482" was originally created for an interplanetary mission, a technical malfunction of the booster block prevented the spacecraft from leaving Earth orbit. Instead of flying to Venus, it remained orbiting the Earth in a high elliptical orbit, gradually decreasing over the decades. Its uncontrolled descent was tracked by the Russian system for warning of dangerous situations in near-Earth space.

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