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.

Each cloud represents in visible form (due to water droplets) a rising column of air,” the Earth Observatory says. NASA/Earth Observatory A blast from the past will be hitting Earth next week, as a failed Soviet spacecraft will make an uncontrolled re-entry into the planet’s atmosphere.