Forbes by Jamie Carter 5/1/2025
Topline
The remains of a spacecraft launched by the U.S.S.R. in 1972 on a doomed mission to land on Venus could strike Earth between May 7 and 13 in a rare uncontrolled re-entry. Marooned in Earth orbit for 53 years, Kosmos 482 was built to withstand extreme temperatures on Venus, so it will survive re-entry if its heat shield is intact, but exactly where and when it will strike Earth is unknown.
Key Facts
Kosmos 482, or Cosmos 482, was launched on March 31, 1972, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which was then part of the Soviet Union. It was designed to parachute into and land on Venus.
Shortly after its launch, a malfunction put it into an elliptical Earth orbit that caused it to get as close as 200 miles (320 kilometers) but as far as almost 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers). Since then its orbit has decayed considerably.
Instead of landing on Venus in 1972, this descent craft looks set to land on Earth in 2025, with Marco Langbroek, a satellite analyst tracking Kosmos 482, predicting it to reenter at 06:01 UTC on Saturday, May 10, plus or minus 2.8 days.
More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2025/05/01/soviet-probe-will-strike-earth-next-week---what-to-know/