【Busty Lifeguards (2010)】

Before a Soviet-era spacecraft intended for Venuscrashed back to Earth over the weekend,Busty Lifeguards (2010) German astronomers watched it tumble through space. 

As Kosmos 482took its last laps, a German radar station spotted the uncrewed landing capsule passing over its antenna. The station, the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR, has combined its observations with an image of a similar capsule to show the spacecraft's orientation and features in the radar reflection. 

The data, presented as a GIF farther down in this story, helped the European Space Agency track the probein its final hours, though its final resting place — most likely a watery grave — is still unknown. 

---

You May Also Like

---

---

If it indeed plunged into the Indian Ocean as some computer simulations have suggested, "only the whales and albatross saw it," said Dutch scientist Marco Langbroek in a poston X.

SEE ALSO: Stunning video reveals Jupiter's roiling auroras. See it now. A predecessor to the lost Soviet spacecraft, either the Venera 5 or Venera 6 capsule, is being prepared for launch in January 1969, in this still image taken from the film "The Storming of Venus." Credit: Sovfoto / Universal Images Group / Getty Images

The Venera mission, which launched from Kazakhstan on March 31, 1972, failed long before the Soviet Union could attempt to touch down on Venus. Because of a propulsion problem, it never escaped Earth's orbit. A half-century later, the landing capsule was predicted to reenterthe atmosphere. That day arrived on Saturday, May 10.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Space debris and expired satellites often fall back to Earth inconsequentially, mostly burning up on the way down. Whatever survives often plummets into an ocean, never to be found. 

This anticipated-yet-uncontrolled reentry was to be exceptional, though: It grabbed the attention of researchers and military officials because of its potential to survive the journey mostly intact. After all, the 1,000-pound spacecraft was built to withstand the harsh environment of an alien planet — the hottest in the solar system, in fact. Venus' climatecould melt lead, and the atmospheric pressure is 75 times that of Earth.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Watch the GIF of the tumbling Soviet spacecraft in the above X post. Credit: Fraunhofer FHR

Fraunhofer FHR was likely the last to see Kosmos 482. It passed about 62 miles overhead on May 10, at 8:04 a.m. CEST, according to the station.  When the object was not detected again one orbit later, at 9:32 a.m. CEST, researchers reasonably assumed the landing or splashdown occurred between those two times.

---

Related Stories

---

• Stunning video reveals Jupiter's roiling auroras. See it now.
• The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
• Venus is 900 degrees. That's surprisingly not why it's bone-dry.
• The most spectacular images of Venus ever captured

A tracking and imaging radar like the one used by the German station is a way to observe space, but it's not a telescope. It uses radio waves instead of light to study objects, such as satellites, debris, and meteors. 

Exactly where and when this Cold War space race relic died is unclear, as it seems there were no eyewitnesses to the fall. The Russian Space Agency Roscosmossaid it plummeted over the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta, Indonesia, at 9:24 a.m. Moscow time, according to a Telegram post, and NASAappears to be accepting of that data. Other reports, some based on earlier predictions, varied. 

The U.S. Space Command, which tracks reentering space objects, has not confirmed any reports or provided its own data on Kosmos 482. An information request from Mashable wasn't answered Tuesday.

• Games
• Science
• Social Good
• Deals
• Tech
• Digital Culture
• Life
• Shopping

• The State of PC Gaming in 2016
• Google Arts and Culture now loaded with decades of awesome U.S. history
• Surprise! 'Love Actually' will get a sequel this spring
• Kesha says Dr. Luke tried to control her diet, and has the emails to prove it
• Whale Vomit Episode 5: Startup Monarchy
• Discover how Sean Spicer would pronounce your name with this handy generator
• Play of the day: Under Armour CEO publicly wallows in regret for Trump comments
• Let #GandalftheGuide show you New Zealand in this photo series
• Amazon Prime Grubhub deal: Save $10 off orders of $20 or more
• LGBTQ couples: Keep holding hands, even when it's uncomfortable, says ad

• Dads pursuing modeling careers are the hottest new meme
• Microsoft employees are the latest casualties amid the tech world's layoffs trend
• George Lucas wanted something like 'Andor'...in 1977
• Golf balls cut in half are your new forbidden snack
• The dark side of college
• Police responded to a burglary, but it turned out to just be a Roomba
• Meta has developed an AI translator for an unwritten language
• Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for October 21
• 'Wendell and Wild' review: Jordan Peele and Henry Selick deliver a dark gem
• The RNC sued Google over Gmail spam filtering

• Your 'wrong person' texts may be linked to Myanmar warlord
• Now you can get magically stupefied in a 'Harry Potter'
• India will now greet tourists with a local SIM card on arrival
• Italian restaurateur has brilliant idea to award polite children
• AMD Radeon RX 550 + Intel Pentium G4560
• Students explain the meanings of their Chinese names in viral video
• Play of the day: Under Armour CEO publicly wallows in regret for Trump comments
• These wired earbuds fix one of the most annoying things about the iPhone 7
• The cicadas aren't invading the U.S.
• This model of Donald Trump's awful handshake is hilariously on

• Sony launches new flagship XM6 headphones: Order them now
• Caavo combines content from Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and more
• Tech and cash is not enough when it comes to health and climate change
• What I learned from using Snap Spectacles as a marketer, tech geek and a dad
• Exceptionally rare radio sources detected in the distant universe
• Unlike Obama, Donald Trump won't fill out a March Madness bracket
• Happy Valentine's Day from these adorably terrible heart
• Get your feet wet as a marine biologist in a VR coral reef
• Your 'wrong person' texts may be linked to Myanmar warlord
• Grandma passes a year in hospital making paintings to share with fellow patients