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The defunct probe from the former Soviet Union, known as Kosmos 482, was launched in 1972 on a mission to explore Venus.
A launch failure left it trapped in Earth’s orbit — where it has remained for more than half a century.
It finally went down over the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia Saturday morning, May 10, according to Russia's space agency Roscosmos.
Due to a malfunction of the booster block after launch in 1972, it remained in a high elliptical orbit of the Earth, gradually approaching the planet.
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