Cosmos 482 (Venera 9) Probe Near future Reentry

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NMaude

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A Venera space-probe was launched in the early 1970s shortly after Venera 8 was launched and if it had successfully been injected into a heliocentric orbit it would've been Venera 9 but instead failed to leave orbit with the Soviets renaming it Cosmos 482 in an effort to sae face. It's orbit has been slowly decaying since then and it will reenter in the near future which is a bit problematic given that it has a descent vehicle designed to land on the surface of Venus, from Scott Manley:


In 1972 the Soviet union launched two spacecraft to explore the planet Venus, Venera 8 would become the second spacecraft to land on Venus, while the other spacecraft got stuck in Earth orbit and so was designated Kosmos 482. Now, 50 years later we expect the spacecraft to finally fall back to Earth, and unlike most spacecraft this one is designed to survive atmospheric entry. So it could land as a solid mass and maybe there's hardware that will survive, or more likely it will land in the ocean and sink....
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Track the spacecraft's descent on Marco Langbroek's site.
https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com
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From the Cosmos 482 wikipedia page:

Kosmos 482 (Russian: Космос 482 meaning Cosmos 482), launched March 31, 1972, at 04:02:33 UTC, was an attempted Venus probe which failed to escape low Earth orbit. It is expected to crash back to Earth sometime around May 9–10, 2025.[1][2] Its landing module, which weighs 495 kilograms (1,091 lb),[3] 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.[4]
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The remaining 2 pieces in orbit are expected to reenter sometime in the second week of May 2025, potentially May 9 or 10th.[1][2][8]
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Having a 1,091lb descent module land on oneself would really that person's day, it will be interesting to see where it lands.

The space-probe was launched on March 31, 1972 by a Molniya LV and the space-probe was the 3MV design:

Type 3MV space-probe:

Nave_espacial_Venera_8.jpg
 
If that is the lander's parachute deployed it will be very quickly stripped away and burn upon reentry but if the parachute hasn't deployed then it almost certain won't due to a) the lander's batteries being totally flat and b) the parachute itself would be a frozen lump with no active heating.
 
"I had to deal with two of these things already... you're on your own--I quit!"

Former OSI agent Steve Austin...last seen at Portmeirion with *another* rover.
 
Last seen in Heartbeeps---as Crimebuster...it would be a good super Dalek
 

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