But the Venera mission, which launched from Kazakhstan on March 31, 1972, failed long before the Soviets could attempt to touch down on the hellscape. Something went wrong with an engine burn to put the vehicle on its Venutian trajectory, and the uncrewed spacecraft got stuck in space.

Debris from the 50 year-old probe Cosmos 482 crash-landed into the Indian Ocean over the weekend.

A Soviet-era spacecraft has plunged to Earth, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. The half-ton spacecraft fell out of orbit on Saturday.