Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s a … Soviet-era spacecraft meant to land on Venus in the 1970s now hurtling in an uncontrolled descent back to Earth, possibly landing anywhere on the planet within the first two weeks of May.
At least, that’s what the experts are warning.
AP reports it’s too early to know where the half-ton mass of metal might come down or how much of it will survive reentry, according to space debris-tracking experts.
Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek predicts the failed spacecraft will reenter around May 10. He estimates it will come crashing in at 150 mph if it indeed remains intact.
File/Diagram pictures of Russia’s first Venus-bound rocket, launched on February 12th, 1969. The left-hand diagram shows a general view of the rocket and its sections.
“While not without risk, we should not be too worried,” Langbroek said in an email to the outlet. AP report continues:
The object is relatively small and, even if it doesn’t break apart, “the risk is similar to that of a random meteorite fall, several of which happen each year. You run a bigger risk of getting hit by lightning in your lifetime,” he said.
The chance of the spacecraft actually hitting someone or something is small, he added. “But it cannot be completely excluded.”
The Soviet Union launched the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 in 1972, one of a series of Venus missions. But it never made it out of Earth orbit because of a rocket malfunction.
It’s quite possible that the 1,000-pound-plus spacecraft will survive reentry or substantial parts thereof.
Where will it land?
File/A Hand Guides a Rocket into Space. Artist Communist Party of the USSR, 1962 (Photo by Pierce Archive LLC/Buyenlarge via Getty Images)
The spacecraft could reenter anywhere between 51.7 degrees north and south latitude, or as far north as London and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, almost all the way down to South America’s Cape Horn.
But since most of the planet is water, “chances are good it will indeed end up in some ocean,” Langbroek said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
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