Kosmos 482 —originally launched on March 31, 1972, as part of the Soviet Union's ambitious Venera program to explore Venus—is expected to make a crash landing on Earth around May 9–10, 2025. Due to a rocket malfunction shortly after launch, the spacecraft never made it out of Earth's orbit.

The Soviet space program had a lot of hope riding on the Cosmos 482 mission when it launched in March 1972. The mission included a lander destined for Venus. The spacecraft never made it out of Earth orbit -- and now it's coming home,