Former Soviet Venus Probe Crashes into South Pacific near Chile

The Russian Venus probe 'COSMOS 482 Descent Craft,' which had triggered a crash risk alert, has crashed into the South Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

Expected Crash Area of COSMOS 482 Descent Craft (6073) (May 10, 2025, 14:43 KST ± 30 minutes). Yellow indicates 30 minutes before the predicted time, red indicates 30 minutes after the predicted time, and blue indicates the crash prediction range announced by the US CSpOC from 14:20 to 14:44. Provided by the Space Aviation Agency.

The Space Aviation Agency confirmed that the descent craft crashed near the southern tip of Chile in the South Pacific Ocean, west of the country, at approximately 2:30 p.m. KST on this day.

The Space Aviation Agency had previously announced on May 9 that the possible crash window for the COSMOS 482 Descent Craft would be between 12:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. KST on May 10, and that the predicted trajectory of the descent craft would not pass over the Korean Peninsula.

The COSMOS 482 Descent Craft is a former Soviet Venus probe that was launched on March 31, 1972. The descent module, estimated to weigh 485 kg and have a diameter of 1 meter, became stranded in Earth's orbit due to the early shutdown of the main engine and was confirmed to be re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

The Space Aviation Agency explained, "The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute provided a predicted crash time at 8:00 a.m. today?seven hours before the actual crash?using the OWL-Net electro-optical surveillance network, specifically OWL-Net Station 2 (Morocco) and Station 4 (United States), demonstrating a more proactive and precise analysis than the U.S. CSpOC."