A 53-year-old Soviet spaceship launched in 1972 is set to crash back to Earth in about two weeks. The Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, weighing nearly 500kg, was initially destined for Venus but a technical failure put it into a perpetual orbit around our planet.
The spacecraft, designed to withstand extreme heat and pressure on Venus, may survive its re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere intact. However, there are many uncertain factors at play, including the long shallow re-entry trajectory and the object’s age.
When the probe starts falling back to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry, it will likely disintegrate upon impact with the atmosphere, but a small chance exists that it might survive the journey. The probability of its impact location is still too early to determine, but experts believe it may crash into a water body.
According to Dutch satellite tracker Marco Langbroek, the spacecraft’s unique orbit and design give it a slight chance of survival. “As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible it will survive re-entry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact,” he said.
Source: https://www.ndtv.com/science/lone-soviet-satellite-plunging-towards-earth-may-crash-like-a-meteorite-8288443