Uncontrolled re-entry of Kosmos 482 – failed Venera lander – around May 10

Len Entwisle informs me there’s increasing online chatter about this historical space probe coming back ‘home’.

Designated Kosmos 482 it’s the landing module of a Venera Venus probe launched in 1972. It failed to escape low Earth orbit and the core unit with a mass of about 480kg is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on around May 10.

See Marco Langbroek’s blog for more details:

https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html

The lander is very rugged, designed to survive the high G-forces and intense heat of descent through Venus’ atmosphere, so it’s likely to reach the ground intact. During the Science Museum Exhibition (Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age) they had the engineering model of the Venera 7 lander on display. It looked like an enormous Scotch egg that had been constructed out of brown concrete.

Alex.