No, Kosmos-482 didn’t land on anyone’s head

If you’ve been staying indoors for the past 24 hours due to concerns about a Soviet spacecraft part potentially falling on you, you can now breathe a sigh of relief.

The object, a part of the Kosmos-482 spacecraft launched 53 years ago, reentered Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 9:24 a.m. Moscow time (2:24 a.m. ET) on Saturday, as confirmed by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Although there have been no reported sightings of the 1,000-pound part descending, Roscosmos indicated that it likely landed in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Debris from spent rockets and satellites frequently enters Earth’s atmosphere, but most of it disintegrates before reaching the surface. Unlike other objects, Kosmos-482 was built to endure the harsh conditions of Venus, its intended landing site just over 100 days after its 1972 launch.

The Kosmos-482 mission was cut short due to a rocket malfunction during launch, preventing it from reaching its destination. After being stuck in a highly elliptical Earth orbit for over 50 years, the spacecraft eventually reentered the atmosphere on Saturday.

Although some may have worried about the metal chunk landing on them, the European Space Agency reassured the public by stating: “The risk of injury from satellite reentry is extremely low. The annual risk of an individual being injured by space debris is less than 1 in 100 billion. In comparison, a person is about 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning.”