A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 is expected to crash back to Earth soon, but scientists remain unsure where it will land. Kosmos 482, originally meant to reach Venus, became stuck in Earth’s orbit after a rocket failure. Weighing over 1,000 pounds and traveling at 17,000 mph, it is expected to survive re-entry but will likely break apart on impact.
“While we can anticipate that most of this object will not burn up… it may be severely damaged on impact,” said Marcin Pilinski of the University of Colorado Boulder. The satellite’s batteries are long dead, and its parachutes no longer functional.
