Kosmos 482, a Soviet spacecraft that never made it beyond Earth’s orbit on its way to Venus, is due to come crashing down on 9 or 10 May

Recent sighting of spacecraft and debris burning through the atmosphere during their plummet back to Earth offer some clues as to what the reentry of a failed Soviet Venus lander might look like.

But the Venera mission, which launched from Kazakhstan on March 31, 1972, failed long before the Soviets could attempt to touch down on the hellscape. Something went wrong with an engine burn to put the vehicle on its Venutian trajectory, and the uncrewed spacecraft got stuck in space.