Paul Hammond @PaulHammond51@fosstodon.org
Public

Incoming!

A soviet spacecraft that was launched in 1972 is forecast for an uncontrolled re-entry likely on May 9th or 10th, 2025.

The Kosmos 482 descent craft is the lander module from a failed Soviet Venera mission to the planet Venus.

Its landing module, weighs in at 495 kg and is highly likely to reach the surface of Earth in one piece as it was designed to withstand 300 G’s of acceleration and 100 atmospheres of pressure.

sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/

This is an image of a museum replica of the Venera 8 descent craft that is in a decaying orbit around the Earth. The decent craft is basically a one meter diameter sphere that was designed to land on the planet Venus back in the early 1970's. The craft is painted white and has large red letters painted around its circumference denoting its country of origin 'CCCP' (Soviet Union). One face of the sphere contains a small silver dome that was used to connect the lander to its launch vehicle. Spread out on either side of the small silver dome are a pair of dark colored radio antennas that the craft would use to communicate with the team of engineers on Earth, I believe that these also acted as radiators to cool the craft in the high temperatures that it would encounter on the surface of Venus. The craft contained a suite of instruments to measure the atmosphere of Venus during its decent to the surface. Image credit: NASA
0
0
0

If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://fosstodon.org/users/PaulHammond51/statuses/114420862537219535 on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)