Kosmos 482, which sparked concern due to the uncertainty surrounding the timing and location of its reentry, fell into the Indian Ocean without causing injuries or damage.

The Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 crashed back to Earth on Saturday after spending more than five decades in space, falling into the Indian Ocean without causing injuries or damage. Launched in 1972 as part of the Soviet Union’s Venera program—intended to land probes on Venus—Kosmos 482 failed to leave Earth orbit due to a launch malfunction. Instead, it entered an elliptical orbit around Earth, where it remained for over 50 years. Over time, its orbit gradually decayed, and in recent days, concerns grew over its imminent atmospheric reentry, with uncertainty surrounding the exact time and location.

The spacecraft was not expected to burn up during reentry, as it had been engineered to withstand Venus’s far denser atmosphere. According to a statement by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, the spacecraft fell into the sea west of Jakarta, Indonesia, at 9:24 AM Israel time—very close to the time predicted by the tracking agencies.

The Soviet probe was one of the oldest human-made objects ever to go to space. It was a metal sphere approximately one meter in diameter and weighing around 500 kilograms. Although it was originally equipped with parachutes, experts considered it highly unlikely they would deploy after so many years in space , especially with the lander’s long-dead batteries. Estimates suggest it hit the ocean surface at a speed of roughly 250 km/h.


A crash that raised concern. A model of the Venera 7 probe, nearly identical to Kosmos 482 | Source: NASA
 

The case of Kosmos 482 once again underscores the importance of addressing the growing issue of space debris—and, ideally, preventing it in the first place. Today, most Earth-orbit missions can be designed to avoid becoming debris at the end of their operational lives, either by burning up in a controlled reentry or moving into a distant, stable orbit, reducing risks to both Earth and surrounding orbital traffic. While malfunctions are inevitable, stronger international prevention measures can reduce future risks and allow humanity to focus on cleaning up the significant amount of debris already left in space.