For interest, the Kosmos probe is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at around 4pm AEST today (+/- 3 hours). While the exact location is uncertain, some of the potential path crosses over Australia.
From current predictions, if it re-enters earlier, it might be seen over Canberra, southwest of Sydney, northeast Melbourne or northeast of Adelaide at around 3:10pm AEST. If it re-enters later, it might be seen northeast of Perth at around 2:30pm AWST.
Status 10 May 09:56 CEST
As the descent craft was not spotted by radar over Germany at the expected 07:32 UTC / 09:32 CEST pass, it is most likely that the reentry has already occurred.
Status 10 May 08:35 CEST
The descent craft was seen by radar systems over Germany at approximately 04:30 UTC and 06:04 UTC, corresponding to 06:30 CEST and 08:04 CEST, respectively. There is no further update on the estimated reentry window as we are now roughly in the centre, corresponding to the red dot labeled COIW (centre of impact window) in the ground track chart below.
Sounds like it probably reentered somewhere between the last ping over Germany at 0604 UTC and the estimated next pass at 0732 UTC. I've read a report on Telegram which I then asked ChatGPT to translate. Not sure if this is an official ROSCOSMOS account. I definitely trust the ESA post more than I trust a Telegram post.
Quote:
The "Kosmos-482" spacecraft re-entered orbit and fell into the ocean
Launched in 1972, the "Kosmos-482" spacecraft ceased to exist after re-entering orbit and falling into the Indian Ocean.
The re-entry of the spacecraft was monitored by the Automated System for Warning of Hazardous Situations in Near-Earth Space.
According to calculations by specialists from TsNIIMash (part of Roscosmos), the spacecraft entered the dense layers of the atmosphere at 9:24 Moscow time, 560 km west of Middle Andaman Island, and fell into the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta.
The spacecraft was launched in the spring of 1972 to study Venus, but due to a malfunction of the booster stage, it remained in a high elliptical Earth orbit, gradually approaching the planet.
