{"id":795891,"date":"2025-05-05T04:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T09:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=795891"},"modified":"2025-05-05T04:36:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T09:36:04","slug":"soviet-space-lander-set-to-reenter-earths-atmosphere-this-weekend-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=795891","title":{"rendered":"Soviet space lander set to reenter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n \n <\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n The crescent moon and Venus are pictured in Bangkok in 2023. A failed Soviet lander bound for Venus in 1972 and stranded in orbit is finally set to return to Earth. \n <\/p>\n
A Soviet spacecraft launched a half-century ago called Kosmos 482 has been orbiting the Earth for decades and is at last expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere this coming weekend.<\/p>\n
The rogue probe is now in its “final death plunge.” It’s more likely that it will splash down in a body of water than land on the ground, says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian.<\/p>\n
“There’s a not-trivial chance that it could hit somewhere where it damages property, and there’s a small chance \u2014 but it’s like one in thousands \u2014 that it could hurt someone,” he told NPR’s All Things Considered<\/em>.<\/p>\n