【Asian Dramas Archives】

Before a Soviet-era spacecraft intended for Venuscrashed back to Earth over the weekend,Asian Dramas Archives German astronomers watched it tumble through space. 

As Kosmos 482took its last laps, a German radar station spotted the uncrewed landing capsule passing over its antenna. The station, the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR, has combined its observations with an image of a similar capsule to show the spacecraft's orientation and features in the radar reflection. 

The data, presented as a GIF farther down in this story, helped the European Space Agency track the probein its final hours, though its final resting place — most likely a watery grave — is still unknown. 

---

You May Also Like

---

---

If it indeed plunged into the Indian Ocean as some computer simulations have suggested, "only the whales and albatross saw it," said Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek in a poston X.

SEE ALSO: Stunning video reveals Jupiter's roiling auroras. See it now. A predecessor to the lost Soviet spacecraft, either the Venera 5 or Venera 6 capsule, is being prepared for launch in January 1969, in this still image taken from the film "The Storming of Venus." Credit: Sovfoto / Universal Images Group / Getty Images

The Venera mission, which launched from Kazakhstan on March 31, 1972, failed long before the Soviet Union could attempt to touch down on Venus. Because of a propulsion problem, it never escaped Earth's orbit. A half-century later, the landing capsule was predicted to reenterthe atmosphere. That day arrived on Saturday, May 10.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Space debris and expired satellites often fall back to Earth inconsequentially, mostly burning up on the way down. Whatever survives often plummets into an ocean, never to be found. 

This anticipated-yet-uncontrolled reentry was to be exceptional, though: It grabbed the attention of researchers and military officials because of its potential to survive the journey mostly intact. After all, the 1,000-pound spacecraft was built to withstand the harsh environment of an alien planet — the hottest in the solar system, in fact. Venus' climatecould melt lead, and the atmospheric pressure is 75 times that of Earth.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Watch the GIF of the tumbling Soviet spacecraft in the above X post. Credit: Fraunhofer FHR

Fraunhofer FHR was likely the last to see Kosmos 482. It passed about 62 miles overhead on May 10, at 8:04 a.m. CEST, according to the station.  When the object was not detected again one orbit later, at 9:32 a.m. CEST, researchers reasonably assumed the landing or splashdown occurred between those two times.

---

Related Stories

---

• Stunning video reveals Jupiter's roiling auroras. See it now.
• The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
• Venus is 900 degrees. That's surprisingly not why it's bone-dry.
• The most spectacular images of Venus ever captured

A tracking and imaging radar like the one used by the German station is a way to observe space, but it's not a telescope. It uses radio waves instead of light to study objects, such as satellites, debris, and meteors. 

Exactly where and when this Cold War space race relic died is unclear, as it seems there were no eyewitnesses to the fall. The Russian Space Agency Roscosmossaid it plummeted over the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta, Indonesia, at 9:24 a.m. Moscow time, according to a Telegram post, and NASAappears to be accepting of that data. Other reports, some based on earlier predictions, varied. 

The U.S. Space Command, which tracks reentering space objects, has not confirmed any reports or provided its own data on Kosmos 482. An information request from Mashable wasn't answered Tuesday.

• Science
• Life
• Social Good
• Deals
• Digital Culture
• Shopping
• Games
• Entertainment

• The best day to book your flight, according to Google
• Trump thanks MAGA
• Feds let debt collectors slide into your DMs
• How Misty Quigley became 'Yellowjackets' best character
• Whale Vomit Episode 5: Startup Monarchy
• Donald Trump says he was too busy to get Melania a birthday gift
• Viral TikTok shows the reality of living with a long COVID symptom called parosmia
• 'The Matrix Awakens' demo for Unreal Engine 5 can be pre
• Exceptionally rare radio sources detected in the distant universe
• Oppo might soon launch a phone with a retractable camera

• The Most Interior Text of the 1300s by Anthony Madrid
• Best online courses for AI, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and more
• On Line: The Pulse of Agnes Martin by John Vincler
• Amazon Device deals: Save up to 56% on Amazon speakers, tablets, and more
• Cooking with Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa by Valerie Stivers
• The Intelligence of Plants by Cody Delistraty
• Holy moly, shoppers spent so much money this Black Friday
• Redux: Lies That Have Hardened by The Paris Review
• Meta apparently rejects period care ads for being adult or political
• Giorgio de Chirico’s Italian Poetry by Stefania Heim

• Against Fear
• Tesla has launched an electric ATV for kids
• Emanuel Macron just owned Donald Trump in their ongoing handshake war
• Twitter is testing content warnings on individual posts
• Time to Unite
• In memoriam of Apple HomePod, which brought Siri into my home
• How Misty Quigley became 'Yellowjackets' best character
• Get a glimpse of crabs migrating in these new Google Street View images
• Apple is actively looking at AI search for Safari
• Uber's new safety update detects if your route changes

• NYT mini crossword answers for May 12, 2025
• 'I am a' memes show what people are really seeking on dating apps
• Apple's 2022 lineup reportedly includes a rugged Watch and iPad with wireless charging
• Happy 13th birthday to the very first YouTube video
• NYT mini crossword answers for May 9, 2025
• Twitter's new 'private' media policy takes down tweets from true crime author
• How Misty Quigley became 'Yellowjackets' best character
• Viral TikTok shows the reality of living with a long COVID symptom called parosmia
• 'The Last of Us' Season 2, episode 5: The spores are here!
• Prince William is living that new dad life as he fights off sleep during royal function