A Soviet-era space probe crashed back to Earth after more than 50 years in orbit

The planets Venus (bottom) and Jupiter are seen successful the entity supra Matthews, N.C., successful 2015. A Soviet probe launched much than 50 years agone — and ne'er reached Venus, its intended destination — apt clang landed successful the Indian Ocean connected Saturday. Chuck Burton/AP hide caption

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Chuck Burton/AP

A Soviet spacecraft that's been stuck successful debased Earth orbit ever since it launched successful 1972 has yet crashed backmost down to our planet.

Kosmos 482 rocketed into abstraction much than 50 years agone connected a quest to scope Venus, but its travel was scuttled by an evident motor malfunction. Over clip the trade fell person and person to Earth arsenic its orbit decayed, and this play it yet came hurtling backmost to the planet's surface, according to aggregate authorities abstraction agencies.

The Russian abstraction bureau Roscosmos said successful a Telegram post that the spacecraft reentered Earth's ambiance Saturday greeting astatine 2:24 a.m. ET and landed successful the Indian Ocean determination westbound of Jakarta, Indonesia. It said Kosmos 482 reentered the ambiance astir 350 miles westbound of Middle Andaman Island disconnected the seashore of Myanmar.

NASA gave the aforesaid reentry clip and landing determination for the spacecraft in a post connected its website.

And according to the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office, Kosmos 482 was past spotted implicit Germany earlier disappearing from radar, starring the bureau to reason that reentry astir apt occurred astir 2:16 a.m. ET.

Because Kosmos 482 was designed to withstand the harsh ambiance of Venus, immoderate astronomers predicted it would stay intact and not pain up erstwhile it returned to Earth.

NASA said it was "possible" that Kosmos 482 survived reentry. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking web said it "most apt survived and reached the crushed astir intact."

But since it apt fell implicit the ocean, immoderate surviving remnants of Kosmos 482 whitethorn beryllium hard to find, an inconvenient information for scientists hoping to survey it.

"If you tin larn astir whether it's inactive bully oregon wherefore it went bad, that volition assistance you erstwhile you're designing spaceships to spell to Mars," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer astatine the Center for Astrophysics astatine Harvard & Smithsonian, told NPR's Morning Edition.