Space explorer Soviet Union falls back on earth after fifty years

The country that launched the thing no longer exists, but this week the world is confronted with the return of a spacecraft that was raised by the Soviet Union in 1972. « There is a good chance that the landing module will simply fall on Earth. After all, it was designed to survive the descent in the Venus atmosphere, » says Marco Langbroek, satellite spotter and lecturer Space Situational Awareness at TU Delft.

Langbroek holds the position of Kosmos 482, an old Venus probe, at his blogon the basis of radar measurements of the American spacecraft forces. With software developed in Delft, the moment of declining can be predicted. The moment this article was published (Monday afternoon May 5), that is 10 May 9:05 pm Dutch time plus minus 1.5 days.

Melt and burn

« The precise moment is constantly changing, depending on new measurements of the position and the atmosphere, » says Langbroek. When, and especially where, Kosmos 482 lands, there is something meaningful to say about that a few hours in advance. « There is the greatest that he falls into the sea, but it can also be on land. »

Most falling spacecraft melt and burn completely: because of their speed of thousands of kilometers per hour, they become glowing hot. But Kosmos 482 is designed to reentry To survive in the dense atmosphere of Venus. The landing module is a sturdy ball of about 500 kilos, about a meter in diameter. The titanium exterior will be greatly peeling off during the glowing descent.

The landing will be a big blow. Langbroek seems extremely unlikely that the parachute will still work after more than fifty years. But it is not entirely excluded. « With the Russians you never know. The batteries are certainly empty, but if the system was mechanical, you have a chance that he will even do it without batteries. »

The relatively small projectile is not really dangerous, Langbroek estimates. « I find it fascinating that it is a kind of time capsule, with Soviet spacecraft technology from more than half a century ago. » The Soviet Union would have lost the race to put people on the moon, but in 1970 the spacecraft Venera-7 (‘Venus’ in Russian) carried out the first successful landing on another planet.

No small performance, because the atmosphere of our neighboring planet proved merciless. On a parachute descended by dense clouds of sulfuric acid, the measuring instruments registered a temperature of 475 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 92 bar. Venera-7 lasted 23 minutes.

Highest point of the job

A long series of failures had preceded that success. Venera-1 overheated in 1961 before he shot Venus, just like Venera-2. Venera-3 crashed on the surface, the battery of Venera-4 rose for landing, and Venera-5 and -6 imploded by the high pressure.

After Venera-7, Venera-8 also had success in 1972, and in the meantime the Soviets had proceeded to launch multiple probes from the same design to increase the chances. Kosmos 482, launched on March 31, 1972, was probably an exact copy of Venera-8, but got stuck in a job around the earth. Because of the failure he was given his little -like name, further information was not provided.

With the help of telescopes and radar images, it was shown how the elongated lane of the landing module around the earth steadily shrunk in half a century. The ApoGee, or highest point of the track, was 9710 kilometers shortly after the launch, but on 1 May 2025 there was only 340 kilometers left, with only days to go.

In the autobiography of the Soviet rocket pioneer Boris Tsjertok (1912-2011) he muses over Venera-1, who still suits as a space scrap through the solar system. « If one day our descendants clean up the space debris in the solar system, and they think Venera-1, they will find a flag of the Soviet Union, and place it in a museum, not far from the gold of the Scythen, » he predicts confidently.

Whether Venera-8 also had a Soviet flag on board may be clear this week.

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