In 1972, the Soviet Union’s Venera 8 spacecraft became the second ever to land on Venus. It operated for 50 minutes in the planet’s harsh environment before succumbing to the intense heat. But this intrepid lander once had a sister probe named Cosmos 482. It launched four days after Venera 8 but was unable to escape low-Earth orbit and broke apart.

A five-decade old spacecraft meant to explore Venus is likely to fall back to Earth next month. This spacecraft is an old Soviet probe Cosmos 482 which launched on March 31, 1972 but failed to leave the Earth's atmosphere due to an anomaly.