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   AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 10-May-2025 05:29:55 JST AkaSci 🛰️

   You are all aware of the uncontrolled reentry of the failed Soviet era COSMOS 482 Venera Venus lander tonight.

   Here is the trajectory map from Aerospace Corp. with some added annotations to help make sense of it. It shows 6 orbital tracks over 8 hours centered around the expected reentry time. It will strike the ground along one of these tracks, but not between them. Reentry will occur near the northern end of the orbit.

   Launch date: Mar 31, 1972
   Weight: ~495 kg

   https://aerospace.org/reentries/6073
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   • Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 10-May-2025 05:29:55 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     Cosmos 482 (aka Kosmos 482) was a Soviet Union mission to Venus, launched in 1972, which failed to escape low orbit.

     The Venera landing module was designed to descend into the extremely harsh and hostile atmosphere of Venus and to withstand 300 G’s of acceleration and 100 atmospheres of pressure. As a result, the 495 kg, 1-meter wide, almost spherical, probe is less likely to break up during reentry and might strike earth at ~242 km/h..

     https://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2025/05/07/reentry-prediction-soviet-era-venera-venus-lander-cosmos-482-descent-craft/
     https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
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     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 10-May-2025 12:04:15 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     Last update from Aerospace Corp. has narrowed the reentry time window of Kosmos 482 to 6 hours.

     May 10th, 6:12 AM UTC +/- 3 hours.

     So, the reentry window opens at 3:12 UTC (11:12 EDT).

     Keep in mind that the orbital period of Cosmos 482 is ~1.5 hours.

     6/n

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     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 10-May-2025 12:04:16 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     The graph below by Marco Langbroek shows the change in apogee and perigee over the past 1.5 years for the Kosmos 482 descent craft.

     "Notably apogee has been coming down steadily, but in the past few months, perigee has started to come down too. Mid May 9 (today), the object was in a 194 x 126 km orbit, with apogee coming down by 40 km/day and perigee by 8 km/day."

     https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=6073 shows a 200.9 x 134.8 km orbit with 51.9° inclination and 87.7 minute period.

     https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
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     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 10-May-2025 12:04:16 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     We can follow the orbit and track of the Cosmos 482 Venus landing craft on the web at https://www.n2yo.com/?s=6073

     This is another good site with additional details -
     https://www.satcat.com/sats/6073
     🛰️
     4/n

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     AkaSci 🛰️ (akasci@fosstodon.org)'s status on Saturday, 10-May-2025 12:04:16 JST AkaSci 🛰️

     in reply to

     The impact speed of Cosmos 482 is estimated at ~242 km/h.

     "With a mass of just under 500 kg and 1-m size, a TUDAT reentry analysis suggests an impact speed (after atmospheric deceleration) of about 65-70 meter per sec (~242 km/h), assuming the reentering lander did not break up or extensively ablate during reentry.

     The kinetic energy at impact is similar to that of a 40-55 cm large (after ablation) meteorite fragment."

     https://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2025/04/kosmos-842-descent-craft-reentry.html
     Also follow https://bsky.app/profile/marcolangbroek.bsky.social
     5/n