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A Cold War Soviet spaceship is set to crash back into Earth on May 10Credit: ESA\/David Ducross 6<\/p>\n Soviet spaceship Venera 4 being prepared for it\u2019s flight to Venus in 1967Credit: Getty 6<\/p>\n Kosmos 482 – the craft set to hit Earth – was launched five years after the Venera 4Credit: Getty 6<\/p>\n The red-zone shows where the spaceship could hit<\/p>\n Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker based in the Netherlands<\/a>, has predicted that the spacecraft will strike the Earth<\/a> on May 10. <\/p>\n And according to the satellite watcher it’s set to hit hard and fast, at a staggering speed of 17,000mph.<\/p>\n The Venus probe was originally built with a parachute but Langbroek warned that it would be unlikely to still work. <\/p>\n He added: “With a mass of just under 500 kg and 1-meter size, risks are similar to that of a meteorite impact.”<\/p>\n Kosmos 482 is expected to fall anywhere between latitude\u00a052 degrees north\u00a0and\u00a052 degrees south – putting London<\/a> in immediate danger.<\/p>\n Also in the red-zone are Australia, South America, and Africa, as well as parts of Europe, North America and Asia. <\/p>\n But while the UK is at risk, experts have said the spacecraft is most likely that the spaceship will land in the ocean.<\/p>\n The Kosmos 482 was previously feared to hit the Earth back in 2019.<\/p>\n Video footage from October 2020 shows the failed spaceship plummeting out of orbit. <\/p>\n The startling footage shows the out-of-control craft hurtling through the sky – headed for Earth. <\/p>\n Watch moment crashing Chinese spaceship streaks through skies over US & breaks apart in storm of falling fireballs<\/p>\n We’ve known that Kosmos 482 would fall to Earth for years \u2013 after a disastrous launch during the Cold War space race left the space junk floating.<\/p>\n Soviet space missions typically involved putting spacecraft into an Earth “parking orbit”.<\/p>\n The craft acted as a launch platform in space – complete with a rocket engine and probe.<\/p>\n The probe would be launched towards its target \u2013 but if unsuccessful, it would be left in orbit and re-branded as a “Kosmos” craft.<\/p>\n Kosmos 482 was launched by a Soviet Molniya booster on March 31, 1972, as part of a mission to Venus.<\/p>\n The craft successfully made it into an Earth parking orbit, but Soviet scientists failed to launch the probe into its Venus trajectory causing it to break into four pieces.<\/p>\n Two of these chunks remained in a low-Earth orbit and fell onto New Zealand<\/a> within two days.<\/p>\n A NASA<\/a> report at the time said: “The Blok L escape stage’s main engine prematurely cut off after only 125 seconds of firing due to a failure in the onboard timer.<\/p>\n “As a result, the spacecraft entered an elliptical orbit around Earth. <\/p>\n “Officially, the Soviets named the probe Kosmos 482 to disguise its true mission.”<\/p>\n What was Kosmos 482?<\/p>\n By Lydia Doye<\/p>\n KOSMOS 482 launched by a Soviet Molniya booster on March 31, 1972, as part of a mission to Venus.<\/strong><\/p>\n The craft successfully made it into an Earth parking orbit, but Soviet scientists failed to launch the probe into its Venus trajectory causing it to break into four pieces.<\/p>\n Two of these chunks remained in a low-Earth orbit and fell onto New Zealand within two days.<\/p>\n The remainder of the craft is now expected to hurtle into the Earth in May at a staggering speed of 17,000mph.<\/p>\n On the morning of April 3, 1972, four titanium alloy balls that weighed around 30lbs fell within a 10 mile area outside of Ashburton, New Zealand.<\/p>\n The balls \u2013 which measured around 15 inches across \u2013 scorched holes in crops and left deep indentations, though no one was hurt.<\/p>\n According to international space law<\/a>, the junk was supposed to be returned to its home nation.<\/p>\n But Soviet top brass denied all knowledge of the origins of the junk, so the farmer who owned the land where the balls fell kept them instead.<\/p>\n Two other pieces from Kosmos 482 went into a higher orbit – and are now expected to fall.<\/p>\n![\"Soviet](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NINTCHDBPICT000990766275.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Descent](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/descent-capsule-soviet-space-probe-990766335.jpg\")
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![\"Diagram](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/diagram-soviet-space-probe-venera-990766869.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Soviet](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/landing-package-attached-probe-soft-990766268.jpg\")
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