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 ...

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.

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 ...

The Soviet-era spacecraft Kosmos 482 has reentered Earth after 53 years in orbit, plunging into the Indian Ocean early Saturday morning.

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 ...