"Cosmos-482" Leaves Earth Orbit After 52 Years — Spacecraft Fell into Indian Ocean

Soviet spacecraft, created for Venus, completed its long journey on Earth

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.

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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