The Kosmos-482 space spacecraft, which the Soviet Union released into space in 1972, fell to the Indian Ocean west of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday. She entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 08.24 CEST, DPA reported, referring to the Russian space agency Roskosmos.
“The Venus survey device was released in the spring of 1972, but due to the upper degree disorder, it remained on the high elliptical orbit around the Earth and gradually approached the planet,” Roskosmos said. He added that the accession of the probe into the atmosphere was controlled by an automated system.
The European Space Agency (ESA) also assumes that the probe is no longer in orbit, as radar systems have not recorded it over Germany at regular time at 09.32 CEST.
The fall of a probe with a diameter of more than one meter and weighing nearly 500 kilograms to the ground on May 10 was expected, but it was not known where this would happen. Experts assumed that the device would survive all because it was made of very durable material to survive the entrance to the atmosphere of Venus.
The Kosmos-482 probe started on March 31, 1972. After reaching the Earth’s orbit, the probe tried to start towards Venus. However, it disintegrated into four parts, two of which remained in the low orbit of the Earth and within 48 hours collapsed to the south of New Zealand, the other two pieces reached a higher orbit.
