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Mission record

Cosmos 482

Also known as Cosmos482, Kosmos 482, Venera

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

An attempted Soviet Venus probe which failed to escape low Earth orbit, launched four days after Venera 8 with an identical design and mission plan. After achieving an Earth parking orbit it made an apparent attempt to launch into a Venus transfer trajectory and separated into four pieces, two of which remained in low Earth orbit and decayed within 48 hours while two went into a higher 210 x 9800 km orbit. NSSDCA records that a malfunction resulted in an engine burn which did not achieve sufficient velocity for the Venus transfer, and that because the lander probe was designed to withstand entry into the Venus atmosphere it is possible it survived its eventual reentry over the Indian Ocean.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Soyuz
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Lander

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched into an Earth parking orbit

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1972-03-31T04:02:33Z and a 204 x 483 km Earth orbit at 51.200 degrees inclination. The master catalog names the launcher in its own text as an SL-6/A-2-e while both pages print Soyuz under Launch Vehicle, which is the only Soyuz string in this segment: its identically designed sister flight Venera 8 carries Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage on the same field four days earlier. Source review: NSSDCA reports 06:24 UTC and an Indian Ocean location. ESA's final May 13 update instead bounds reentry between the last 06:04 UTC radar detection and an absent 07:32 pass on May 10, 2025, without a precise time or location. The 1981 decay belongs to 1972-023A and must not end the capsule's independent history. Satprobe's published CSVs contain simulation radii, speeds and Monte Carlo reentry coordinates; their footer lists TLE epochs but not full historical element lines. These derived results are not independent tracking observations.

    Earth

  2. Mission end

    NSSDCA decay date 1981-05-05 for the 1972-023A object

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1981-05-05 under the heading Decay Date and ends its second Earth orbit row at the same date. That is not the reentry the master catalog narrates: the decay date is filed under 1972-023A while the reentry the master catalog describes is of piece 1972-023E, and the two dates are years apart.

    Earth

  3. Milestone

    Descent capsule reentered; exact time and location uncertain

    ESA brackets reentry between the last 06:04 UTC radar detection and an absent 07:32 pass on May 10, 2025. NSSDCA separately reports 06:24 UTC over the Indian Ocean; no precise location is established by the final ESA update. This event belongs to 1972-023E, not the main object that decayed in 1981.

    Earth

  4. Milestone

    Transfer burn fails; the spacecraft separates into four pieces

    The master catalog records that after achieving an Earth parking orbit the spacecraft made an apparent attempt to launch into a Venus transfer trajectory and separated into four pieces, two of which remained in low Earth orbit and decayed within 48 hours, and two pieces, presumably the lander probe and detached upper stage engine unit, went into a higher 210 x 9800 km orbit. The launch/orbital information page carries a second Earth orbit row of 210 x 9813 km at 52.000 degrees. Carried without a timestamp because the page dates the burn only by implication.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Cosmos 482 · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Venus

    • Cosmos 482 lander probe · Lander

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: May 10, 2025 to May 10, 2025

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Cosmos 482 descent craft: Bounded derived 15-minute final Earth-orbit arc from archived TLE; reentry timing remains day-only · May 10, 2025 to May 10, 2025

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 7, 2026