The probe was supposed to visit Venus, but a failure during launch meant it has been marooned in space for almost 50 years.
A Soviet spacecraft that has been orbiting Earth for almost half a century could come crashing back down to Earth this year, an expert has said.The Venus-bound Cosmos 482 was launched in March, 1972. After reaching Earth’s orbit, it was due to be propelled towards the second planet from the Sun. However, an engine failure at this point meant it got marooned in space.
It said the spacecraft is travelling at extremely fast speeds, orbiting Earth about once every 112 minutes. Thomas Dorman, who has been tracking the satellite, told the website that the craft should survive a re-entry with “no problems.” He said he believes as much as 40 to 50 percent of the upper spacecraft could still be in space."It is interesting to note the apogee of the orbit is slowly starting to decay,” he told Space.com.
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