The odyssey of the Soviet Union’s failed attempt to reach Venus came to an end over the weekend with the probe either disintegrating during reentry or what remained of it splashing harmlessly into the ocean.
A Venera-8 descent module (source: NASA archive)
The spacecraft, dubbed Kosmos 482, had orbited the Earth since it launched in March 1972. It followed the Soviet Venera 8 probe and would have most likely been Venera 9 if it weren’t for a suspected engine failure that left the lander stranded in orbit around the Earth for more than half a century.
The rocket stage associated with the spacecraft and its main bus reentered Earth’s atmosphere decades ago, but the lander remained in orbit until this weekend. Scientists were concerned that since the lander was designed to survive a reentry through the atmosphere of Venus, it might also make it through Earth’s atmosphere relatively intact, with its near-500 kg mass impacting the surface at around 240 km/h.
The European Space Agency (ESA) published radar images last week from the Tracking and Imaging Radar (TIRA) at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques in Germany that appeared to show the spacecraft tumbling. Kosmos 482 was spotted over Germany at 0804 CEST (0604 UTC) on May 10, but was not detected one orbit later at the expected 0932 CEST (0732 UTC) pass.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell noted reports from Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, that re-entry was at 0624 UTC over the Indian Ocean, but added that the agency provided “no details on how they conclude that.”
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Roscosmos posted on Telegram, “According to calculations by specialists from TsNIIMash (part of Roscosmos), the device entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 9:24 Moscow time, 560 km west of Middle Andaman Island, and fell in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta.”
ESA said, “A precise time and location of its reentry have so far not been identified. We have not received any reports on direct visual observations of the final reentry or of any impacts on ground.”
The final fate of the probe is unclear, other than a terse “the Kosmos-482 spacecraft ceased to exist” from Roscosmos via a translation service. Since it was tumbling, it seems likely that it burned up – while the probe was built to withstand entry into the atmosphere of Venus, orientation was important. Additionally, the heat shield could have sustained damage or cracked during the probe’s stay in orbit.
We now anxiously await the rise of our alien overlords from the depths of the Indian Ocean. ®