A spaceship in the Soviet era plunged to earth on Saturday, more than half a century after its failed launch in Venus.
Its uncontrolled entry was confirmed by the Russian Space Agence and European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking. The Russians indicated that he had descended on the Indian Ocean, but some experts were not so sure of the precise location. The European Space Debris Debris Office also followed the fate of the spacecraft after failing to appear on a German radar station.
It is not immediately known how much, if necessary, the spacecraft of half a-tonne survives the fiery descent of the orbit. Experts have said in advance that some, if not all, could crash, since it had been built to resist an landing on Venus, the hottest planet in the solar system.
The chances that anyone who is rabbations by space vessel debris was extremely weak, scientists said.
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spaceship known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions for Venus. But he never got out in orbit around the earth, blocked there by a dysfunction of the rocket.
A large part of the spacecraft returned to earth in the decade of the failure of the launch. More capable of resisting the tug of gravity when its orbit decreased, the spherical landing – about 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter – was the last part of the spaceship to descend. The landing was locked in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).
Any surviving wreck will belong to Russia, under a United Nations Treaty.
After following the descending spiral of the spacecraft, scientists, military experts and others could not identify in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft could descend. Solar activity added to uncertainty as well as to the deterioration of the spaceship after so long in space.
Late Saturday morning, the command of the American space had not yet confirmed the disappearance of the spaceship when it collected and analyzed the data on Orbit.
The command of American space regularly monitors dozens of return each month. What distinguishes Kosmos 482 – and drew additional attention from government trackers and private spaces – is that it was more likely to survive the start of the school year, according to officials.
It also happened uncontrolled, without any intervention by the flight controllers which normally target the Pacific and other large expanses of water for old satellites and other spatial debris.
& Copy 2025 The Associated Press