Kosmos 482
Sign in to saveAlso known as Cosmos 482, 4V-1 No. 671, V-72 No. 2
Soviet Venera spacecraft which failed to escape Earth orbit
Key facts
- Names
- Kosmos 482 main bus
- Mission type
- Delivery of a lander to Venus
- Operator
- Soviet Academy of Sciences
- Cospar id
- 1972-023A
- Mission duration
- Launch failure
- Spacecraft type
- 3V (V-72) no. 671
- Bus
- 3MV
- Launch mass
- 1,180 kilograms (2,600 lb) (including the descent module)
- Launch date
- March 31, 1972 ( 1972-03-31 ) , 04:02:00 UTC
- Rocket
- Molniya 8K78M
- Launch site
- Baikonur 31/6
- Decay date
- 5 May 1981 ( 1981-05-06 ) final sections of 1972-023A
via Wikipedia infobox
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Kosmos 482 (Russian: "Космос 482" meaning Cosmos 482) was an attempted Soviet Venus probe. Launched 31 March 1972, at 04:02:33 UTC, it failed to escape low Earth orbit. Because of this, its name was retrospectively changed to "Kosmos" which was used for Earth-orbiting satellites.
After achieving a parking orbit around Earth, the full Venera payload (1972-023A) separated into two objects. What was calculated to be the Venera main bus kept the 1972-023A designation, while the designation 1972-023E (catalogue no. 6073) was assigned to the descent craft, which was the section meant to be landed on Venus. The main bus and its associated rocket stages reentered Earth's atmosphere between 3 April 1972 and 5 May 1981.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Kosmos 482” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.