A Soviet spacecraft launched more than five decades ago is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend after failing to reach its destination, Venus. Weighing around half a ton and built with a titanium exterior to withstand the extreme heat of Venus, the spacecraft is unlikely to completely disintegrate during reentry.
Experts predict that the descent—set to happen on Saturday—will most likely end in an uninhabited area or over one of the planet’s oceans, minimizing any threat to human life.
“The chances of it hitting a populated region are incredibly small,” said Marcin Pilinski, a scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, reports AP.
Although much of the spacecraft may survive the intense heat of reentry, it’s expected to be heavily damaged upon impact, Pilinski added.
By Friday, all indications pointed to a reentry early Saturday morning, U.S. Eastern Time, give or take several hours. While space debris trackers around the world converged in their forecasts, it was still too soon to know exactly when and where the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 would come down. That uncertainty was due to potential solar activity and the spacecraft’s old condition. Its parachutes were expected to be useless by now and its batteries long dead.
Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek estimated the impact speed at 150 mph (242 kph) if the spacecraft remains intact.
The Soviets launched Kosmos 482 in 1972, intending to send it to Venus to join other spacecraft in their Venera program. But a rocket malfunction left this one stuck in orbit around Earth. Gravity kept tugging on it and was expected to finally cause its doom.
Spherical in shape, the spacecraft — 3-foot (1-meter) across and packing more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms) — will be the last piece of Kosmos 482 to fall from the sky. All the other parts plummeted within a decade.
Any surviving wreckage will belong to Russia under a United Nations treaty.
Bd-pratidin English/ Afia
