Soviet probe crashed into the sea after 53 years – Diepresse.com

According to Russian information, a spatial probe shot from the Soviet Union in 1972 crashed in the Indian Ocean. The room apparatus entered the earth’s atmosphere at 8.24 a.m. and then plunged into the sea west of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the Russian space authority Roskosmos said in Moscow. There was no information on possible damage.

The European space organization ESA It also assumes that the probe called Kosmos-482 has now entered the earth’s atmosphere. Since, unlike expected at 9:32 a.m., it was not again captured by radar systems over Germany, it was « most likely » that admission had already happened. In the morning, the systems over Germany had still recorded the probe.

Sonde for more than 50 years in the reversal of the earth

« The apparatus was launched in spring 1972 to explore Venus, but remained around the ground in a high elliptical orbit due to a malfunction of the upper level and gradually approached the planet, » said Roskosmos. The admission of the probe was controlled by an automated system for warning about dangerous situations in space near the earth, the authority said.

The crash of the almost 500 kilogram probe with a diameter of around one meter was expected by the space authorities for Saturday. However, it was completely unclear where she should meet the earth.

Experts had previously expected that the probe made of extremely resistant material could arrive as a whole on earth because it was designed to survive the entry into the atmosphere of Venus. However, Roskosmos now wrote: « There are no more cosmos-482. » In which state the remains of the probe are now remained unclear.

Soviet Union explored Venus

Between 1961 and 1983, the Soviet Union sent several room probes towards Venus as part of the Verena program to explore the foreign planet. Several of these probes also ended up on Venus and sent information from there.

Kosmos 482 started on March 31, 1972 and was to complete a controlled landing on Venus. Due to a failure of the carrier rocket, however, the entrance capsule remained in the orbit. While the other components burned up decades ago, the capsule has remained around the earth on an eccentric orbit since then. According to information from the US room trip authority NASA Was the Soviet probe battery operated and has instruments for measuring temperature, pressure, density and other parameters. (APA/dpa)