Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 just crashed to Earth

Your support = more science, more stars, more wonder. Donate to EarthSky and be part of something bigger.

Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 appears to have fallen to Earth

The heat-resistant Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 – originally bound for Venus – apparently crashed to Earth on Saturday morning, May 10, 2025, likely in the Indian Ocean. The craft was last spotted by radar over Germany. The European Space Agency, which had been tracking it, said in its last update as of this writing:

As the descent craft was not spotted by radar over Germany at the expected 07:32 UTC / 09:32 CEST pass, it is most likely that the reentry has already occurred.

Marco Langbroek of the Aerospace Faculty of TU Delft said:

Roscosmos has issued a message on telegram claiming reentry near 6:24 UTC over the Indian Ocean. That is reasonably in line with our model.

Meanwhile, the European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) posted a map showing the last orbit which also suggests the Soviet-era spacecraft ended in the Indian Ocean

No injuries or damage have been reported.

What was Kosmos 482?

After a successful launch on March 31, 1972, to a temporary orbit around Earth, a problem with a timer cut an engine burn prematurely. So the spacecraft was unable to leave our planet’s orbit. It’s been circling Earth for 53 years and now it has come home.

Space trackers follow tens of thousands of objects in Earth-orbit. And space debris does fall back to Earth at times. But Kosmos 482 carried with it an interesting story. It was once found for Venus. It was an extremely durable craft, built to withstand the high temperatures and extremely high atmospheric pressure (some 90 times greater than Earth’s at the surface) of Venus, the planet one step inward from Earth. So the fall of this craft was not unexpected. But the exact time and place of the fall was extremely difficult to determine, as the reentry was uncontrolled. Its current orbit did indicate it should be anywhere between latitude 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south.

And we know that about 90% of Earth’s population lives in that zone.

Of course, our planet is mostly ocean-covered. And that meant the probability that the spacecraft would reenter over water was high. A water reentry is still a possibility. It may never be found on land.

EarthSky’s Dave Adalian spoke to impact hazards expert, Dr. Vishnu Reddy of the University of Arizona, this week about Kosmos 482. Their interview is below. Fascinating!

Was there risk?

Yes, there was a risk associated with the spacecraft reentry. Although the odds that it would occur over land or a populated area were small, the inconvenient detail with Kosmos 482 was that it was a probe similar to the Venera mission landers. They were built to withstand acceleration, high pressures and extreme heat in the incredibly dense atmosphere of Venus. So most of the lander, even if not intact, might still have reached our planet’s surface (or fallen into the ocean).

The craft is about 3.2 feet (1 meter) across. But it’s heavy; it weighs approximately 1,100 pounds (495 kilograms). And, according to satellite expert Marco Langbroek, impact speed might be around 150 miles (242 km) per hour after atmospheric drag deceleration.

Was the Soviet spacecraft visible to the eye before reentering?

We haven’t heard any reports of firevballs from the craft’s reentry. But it’s possible someone saw it or even caught an image. We will keep you updated.

The sun is a drag

One factor in the craft’s reentry date is the sun’s activity. Why? Because when our sun is active, our planet’s upper atmosphere gets hotter and expands. That, in turn, causes more atmospheric drag on low-orbiting objects, slowing the orbital speed and thus causing the reentry to occur sooner. Follow daily sun activity here.

Did Kosmos 482 have a parachute?

Advanced astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh uses a camera attached to a telescope to track orbiting satellites. And some of his images show what he thinks might be the exposed parachute of the Kosmos 482 lander. Was it possible Kosmos 482 had a parachute still attached? Even if it did, most experts highly doubt the parachute’s ability to work – and slow the craft down as it reenters – after so many years.

Bottom line: That old, failed Soviet spacecraft – Kosmos 482 – has apparently come back to Earth, likely in the Indian Ocean, according to Roscosmos.

Read more: Space vehicle reentries shed exotic metal particles to Earth’s atmosphere