Kosmos 482, a Soviet era spacecraft shrouded in Cold War secrecy, will reenter the Earth atmosphere in the next few days after misfiring on a journey to Venus more than 50 years ago. On average, a piece of space junk the size of Kosmos 482, with a mass of about a half ton, falls into the atmosphere about once per week. What different this time is that Kosmos 482 was designed to land on Venus, with a titanium heat shield built to withstand scorching temperatures, and structures engineered to...
