Launched on March 31, 1972, the spacecraft Kosmos 482 was sent into orbit as part of the Soviet Union’s Venera program to study and explore the planet Venus. However, upon entering orbit, a premature shutdown of one of its rocket boosters led to the probe becoming stranded. It then broke into four or so pieces, which then continued to encircle the Earth for the next five decades.

Just recently, what is believed to be the lander portion of the probe re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and crash landed into the Indian Ocean, 350 miles west of Myanmar’s Middle Andaman Island. According to data from the ESA’s Space Debris Office, Kosmos disappeared from radar at 06:16 GMT, which is when re-entry was believed to have occurred.

Many scientists are hoping to study the remains of the spacecraft; but getting to it will be a challenge. Because it landed in the ocean, retrieving its remnants will be difficult; on the other hand, since it hit water instead of land, it has a greater chance of being relatively intact. The probe was designed to survive the extreme conditions of Venus’s surface, so scientists remain hopeful that recovery and analysis of Kosmos 482 can be carried out.

All information sourced from:

“A Soviet-era space probe crashed back to Earth after more than 50 years in orbit” npr.org.

“Soviet-era spacecraft ‘likely’ to have re-entered Earth’s atmosphere” bbc.com.