One of the lesser-known achievements of the Cold War-era Space Race is the Soviet successes in landing probes on the incredibly harsh and unforgiving surface of Venus, which has (465 degrees Celsius) and atmospheric pressures 90 times that of Earth. Despite these infernal conditions, the Soviets managed (the ) and landers to the surface. Cosmos 482, however, was not one of these,. But it may be coming home soon.

on March 31, 1972, just a few days after its sister probe, which became Venera 8, was launched to Venus. Soviet probes would usually have a generic Cosmos name at launch and only receive their official mission name when successfully out of Earth orbit. Cosmos 482 would have been Venera 9 if it had made it to Venus, but, of course, it didn’t.

What happened was the “escape stage Block L” engine—the rocket stage designed to propel the probe out of Earth orbit and on to Venus—cut off prematurely at 125 seconds due to an equipment failure, which effectively stranded the probe into a highly elliptical orbit around Earth, with a miles.

Over the years that orbit has decayed, and It also seems that at some point early on, an explosion took place, one of which re-entered the atmosphere and one that’s still in orbit.

While it’s not exactly certain what part of the spacecraft is left in orbit, have noted what appears to be a sort of oblong shape, though it’s not really clear what is actually up there.

Sources do seem to think that part of what is still in ,which is what makes this so interesting.

That descent craft was designed to withstand re-entry into Venus’ atmosphere; even after spending nearly half a century in space, such a lander should be more than capable of withstanding an Earth re-entry, which means a 1,091 pound chunk of vintage space hardware will very likely survive re-entry and slam into Earth.

I suppose there’s a chance its parachutes are still functioning, but I wouldn’t really count on it.

No one is really certain exactly where or when the remains of Cosmos 482 will land, but everyone seems to agree than original .

One good thing about all of this is that it reminds us about some really tough and interesting hardware and exploration from the Space Race; a landing on Venus with an operating spacecraft remains impressive to this day.

I guess the downside is that one of these impressive spacecraft might crash into your garage. It’s unlikely, but maybe just keep an eye out, all the same.