An interesting piece of Cold War space history concluded this week. The descent stage of the Soviet Union's Kosmos 482 probe finally re-entered Earth's atmosphere, crashing into the Indian Ocean.

Originally launched in 1972, this was intended to be a Venus lander identical to Venera 8. However, the upper stage failed to ignite properly, stranding the heavily shielded descent capsule in a highly elliptical Earth orbit for an astonishing 53 years. Because it was designed to survive the crushing heat and pressure of the Venusian atmosphere, the capsule likely survived the fiery re-entry mostly intact before sinking beneath the waves.

Cover Image: Rave/Wikimedia