Cosmos 482, the exploratory spacecraft launched toward Venus by the Soviet Union in March 1972, has finally ended its mission. The 50-year-old lander probe returned to Earth early Saturday, May 10 ...

Cosmos 482 was launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union but soon broke up into pieces, some of which remained in space for 53 years before it re-entered Earth's atmosphere ...

Cosmos 482’s mission was to land on the surface of Venus. Instead, it fell back to Earth more than a half-century after it launched. Credit: NASA/JPL ...

The Kosmos 482 probe, a relic from the first Space Race, crashed harmlessly into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia at 2:24 a.m. EDT (6:24 a.m. GMT), the Russian space agency Roscosmos ...

A Soviet spacecraft that's been stuck in low Earth orbit ever since it launched in 1972 has finally crashed back down to our planet. Kosmos 482 rocketed into space more than 50 years ago on a ...

Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a ...

A failed Soviet Venus lander's long space odyssey has come to an end. The Kosmos 482 probe crashed to Earth today (May 10) after circling our planet for more than five decades. Reentry occurred at ...

May 10 (UPI) -- A Soviet-area spacecraft that orbited Earth for more than 50 years crashed into the Indian Ocean on Saturday, Russian officials confirmed. "The Kosmos-482 spacecraft, launched in ...

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.

No one appears to have been injured. The Russian Space Agency wrote on Telegram, according to a translation, "The Kosmos-482 spacecraft left orbit and fell into the ocean.