Cosmos 482

Launch data:

Mission details:

• Cosmos 482, launched March 31, 1972 at 04:02:33 UTC, was an attempted Venus probe which failed to escape low Earth orbit (Indentique mission as Venera 8).
• Cosmos 482 was launched by an SL-6/A-2-e launcher on March 31, 1972, 4 days after the Venera 8 atmospheric probe and may have been similar in design and mission plan. After achieving an Earth parking orbit, the spacecraft made an apparent attempt to launch into a Venus transfer trajectory.
• The escape stage Blok L's engine cut off 125 seconds after ignition due to timer failure.
  It separated into four pieces, two of which remained in low Earth orbit and decayed within 48 hours into south New Zealand (known as the Ashburton balls incident), and two pieces (presumably the payload and detached engine unit) went into a higher 210 x 9800 km orbit. It is thought that a malfunction resulted in an engine burn which did not achieve sufficient velocity for the Venus transfer and left the payload in this elliptical Earth orbit.
• At 1 am on April 3, 1972, four red-hot 13.6 kg titanium alloy balls landed within a 16 km radius of each other just outside Ashburton, New Zealand. The 38 cm-diameter spheres scorched holes in crops and made deep indentations in the soil, but no one was injured. A similarly shaped object was discovered near Eiffelton, New Zealand, in 1978.
• Space law required that the space junk be returned to its national owner, but the Soviets denied knowledge or ownership of the satellite. Ownership therefore fell to the farmer upon whose property the satellite fell. Cosmos 482 was thoroughly analysed by New Zealand scientists which determined that they were Soviet in origin because of manufacturing marks and the high-tech welding of the titanium. The scientists concluded that they were probably gas pressure vessels of a kind used in the launching rocket for a satellite or space vehicle and had decayed in the atmosphere.

Media stories about the failed 1972 Soviet Venus probe Cosmos 482:

• In the late 1960s and early 1970s the newly-formed IKI (Space Research Institute) and the Lavochkin company developed a series of Venus probes based on an evolution of Korolev′s early Mars/Venera probe design. In the 1972 Venus window, the last two such probes were launched: V-71 No. 670 and V-71 No. 671, both on Molniya-M (8K78M) four-stage launch vehicles (basically Soyuz rockets with a fourth stage, in this case the Blok-NVL)
• Probe No. 670 was boosted to solar orbit and named Venera-8 ("Venus-8"). It was launched on 1972 Mar 27 and successfully landed on Venus on 1972 Jul 22, surviving for 50 minutes on the surface.
• Probe No. 671 didn′t go so well. The lower 3 stages of the Molniya-M rocket put the stack in a 196 x 215 km Earth partking orbit. Then the Blok-NVL′s BOZ ullage motor unit fired to give the upper stage a little kick and itself separated. The Blok-NVL main engine now ignited but shut down prematurely, 2 min into a 4 min burn. The Venera probe/Blok-NVL stack was now stranded in a 206 x 9800 km Earth orbit.
• US tracking found THREE objects in this orbit. One was labelled as Kosmos-482, one as the rocket stage, and one as debris. "Kosmos-482" and the "rocket stage" (1972-023A and B) had relatively rapid orbital decay and reentered in 1981 and 1983 respectively. The debris object, 1972-023E, came down more slowly.
• In Sep 2000, it was consider the possiblity that, with its 1 sq m radar cross section, 23E (object 6073) might be the separated Venera descent sphere. In June 2002 the NORAD satellite catalog starting labelling 6073 as the Venera descent sphere too.
  Recent optical observations have cast some doubt on these identifications.
• The suggestion that 23E will reenter soon seems to be based on the fact that it has a 200 km perigee. But it′s had a 200 km perigee since 1972. (see links)
  At k482.jpg is showing the average height of the various objects from the launch versus time; and at k482c.jpg is showing the perigee (red), apogee (blue) and average height (green) of the 23E object (presumed descent capsule, only bit of Kosmos-482 still up there). Doesn′t look like imminent reentry.
• So to recap: Soviet Venus probe stuck in elliptical orbit. Payload separated from rocket stage after failure. Third object - still in orbit - speculated to be the 500 kg, 1.0m dia. entry sphere. But might not be. Reentry probably early-mid 2020s?
  If it *is* the entry sphere, it might well survive Earth atmosphere entry and hit the ground. In which case it′ll have the usual one-in-about-10000 chance of hitting someone. The vehicle is dense but inert and has no nuclear materials.

External links:

• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking
• "New light on mysterious space balls" Credit: New Zealand Herald 2002-08-24
• about this third object, 1972-023E, SSN 06073.