Before possible crash: Soviet probe flew over Germany on Saturday morning

Paris. Shortly before its expected crash-landing on Earth, a Soviet space probe flew over Germany on Saturday morning. The probe was detected by radar systems over Germany between 6:30 a.m. and 8:04 a.m., the European Space Agency (ESA) announced.

The probe, launched toward Venus in 1972, is expected to crash back to Earth this weekend without ever reaching its destination. According to ESA, the Kosmos 482 probe's capsule is expected to re-enter on Saturday.

It was said that where exactly the probe, which weighs almost 500 kilograms and has a diameter of about one meter, will hit the Earth can only be predicted more precisely shortly beforehand.

However, the ESA assures that the risk of anyone being harmed by impact is extremely small. Rather, the chances are good that the probe, made of extremely durable material, will arrive on Earth intact and will not break apart or burn up upon entering the atmosphere. This is because the probe was designed to survive entry into Venus' atmosphere.

Parts of a SpaceX rocket crashed into the atmosphere and burned up. This was clearly visible in the skies over Germany and caused concern among some people. How great is the risk posed to Earth by space debris?

Between 1961 and 1983, the Soviet Union sent several space probes to explore Venus as part of the Verena program. Several of these probes landed on Venus and transmitted information from there.

Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972, and was scheduled to make a controlled landing on Venus. However, due to a launch vehicle failure, the entry capsule remained in Earth orbit. While the remaining components burned up decades ago, the capsule has remained in an eccentric orbit around Earth ever since.

According to information from the US space agency NASA, the Soviet probe was battery-powered and equipped with instruments for measuring temperature, pressure, density, and other parameters. The probe was originally equipped with a parachute to slow down the landing on Venus. However, as researchers at the Technical University of Braunschweig report, observations indicate that the parachute may already have been deployed.

RND/dpa