Soviet probe spacecraft crash into Indian Ocean; 53 years after its failed bid to reach planet Venus
A Soviet spacecraft, Kosmos 482, fell into the Indian Ocean on Saturday morning, 53 years after it failed to reach Venus, Sputnik/RIA Novosti reported.
"The Kosmos 482 spacecraft, which was launched in 1972, has ceased to exist, deorbiting and falling into the Indian Ocean," the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said on Telegram.
A system for warning about hazardous situations in the near-Earth orbit monitored the spacecraft's descent, Roscosmos said.
The spacecraft entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 9:24am Moscow time (06:24 GMT) about 560 kilometres (348 miles) west of the Indian island of Middle Andaman and crashed into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta.
The spacecraft was launched to Venus in 1972.
Its booster malfunctioned, leaving the probe in a highly elliptical orbit, which decreased over time due to the spacecraft's friction with the upper atmosphere, leading to its reentry.
Sputnik / Ria Novosti
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