A SOVIET spacecraft once destined for Venus is expected to crash land on Earth this week after more than 50 years stuck in orbit.
The Cold War-era , called the Kosmos 482 Descent Craft, is set to embark on a fiery descent through the atmosphere between 8 May and 12 May.
The failed Venus probe has been stuck in low orbit since its launch in 1972.
Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in space situational awareness at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands predicted the landers return in a blog post.
The spacecraft is expected to hit Earth at a staggering speed of 17,000mph – which Langbroek likened to a meteorite impact.
Soon after its botched launch, Kosmos 482 broke into several pieces.
The probe’s main bodyreentered Earth’s atmosphereon 5 May, 1981.
Though the Descent Craft has remained in orbit for almost 53 years, until now, when it appears to be breaking free.
It is just one of roughly 35,000 pieces of , measuring more than 10cm in size, which are being tracked by experts.
At 3ft-wide and 495kg in weight, the lander is unlikely to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere on its descent.
Langbroek has mapped out where the hunk of space debris might land.
The projected landing zone covers an enormous area on both sides of the equator.
Kosmos 482 is expected to fall anywhere between latitude52 degrees northand52 degrees south – which puts , alongside other major cities, from to , in possible danger.
Also in the red-zone are , , and , as well as parts of , and .
Nobody knows for sure where Kosmos 482 will hit.
It’s important to note the spacecraft has a significant amount of ocean to plunge safely into.
The odds of the rogue spacecraft hitting a populated area are exceptionally slim.
Most pieces of deorbited space debris land in the sea or unpopulated areas.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said probability that the fall will cause any damage is extremely small.
The Kosmos 482 was previously feared to hit the Earth back in 2019.
Video footage from October 2020 shows the failed spaceship plummeting out of orbit.
The startling footage shows the out-of-control craft hurtling through the sky – headed for Earth.
