The Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1972, is believed to be a failed mission to Venus, has returned to Earth early on Saturday morning.
The European Space Agency, which was watching the uncontrolled craft, said it was the last time it was monitored by Radar on Germany. At the time of its expected crash, the radar can no longer discover Kosmos 482, and concluded that “it is possible that the re -entry has already happened.”
No injuries or damages were reported.
The Kosmos 482 spacecraft was part of the Soviet Union Venera, a series of sensors that were developed for research on Venus. Ten of those missions succeeded on the arid -in -law, but the 482 Cosmos missile was broken. Its higher phase, which contains the craft of proportions, is stuck in the Earth’s orbit.
For the next fifty -three years, the spacecraft with a length of about three feet and 1069 pounds of land flew into an ongoing oval orbit, until it approached enough to fall into the planet’s atmosphere.
that it It is not unusual to return to Earth. More than 2,400 things are made He fell from space in 2022Standard, according to ESA. The vast majority of them were burned in the atmosphere of the earth, and most of those who did not originate into the perimeter.
But Kosmos 482 was built to bear the landing through the thick atmosphere of Venus, and to work on the surface of the planet, where the average temperature is 867 ° F (464 ° C). This means that it was theoretically difficult to survive by relatively easy entry through the Earth’s atmosphere.
There is no record of space debris causes human deaths. European Space Agency officials wrote in A. Blog post about Kosmos-482. “The annual risks of the individual person who was injured due to space debris is less than 1 in 100 billion. By comparison, the person is more likely to hit lightning about 65,000 times.”
On Friday, the American space force expected that the spacecraft would return to the air at 1:52 am on Saturday morning over the Pacific Ocean, west of Guam.
This article was originally published on NBCNEWS.com
