Juan Villoro
On May 10, the planet received a peculiar Mother’s Day gift: a metal sphere weighing 500 kilos fell from the sky.
It all began on March 31, 1972, when the Soviet Union launched the Kosmos 482 spacecraft into space. At that time, a rocket was like a cardinal who changes his name when he becomes pope: capsule 482 would become Venera 9 upon leaving Earth’s orbit. But that did not happen.
A malfunction prevented it from reaching the “escape velocity” necessary to leave Earth. For more than half a century, it was trapped in a useless elliptical orbit.
The probe was coated with titanium to withstand the harsh atmosphere of Venus. But the morning star shone for decades without receiving that visit.
The lost spacecraft suffered the same fate as all of us: it was subjected to “atmospheric friction,” an elegant way of saying that it was worn down by time. Some of its parts broke off, and its orbit shrank. Sooner or later, it would return to its place of origin to die.
The news caused alarm among specialists, as it was an uncontrolled fall. The only thing technology could do was calculate the re-entry zone. Scientists from several countries determined that this would occur somewhere between 52 degrees south latitude and north latitude, which included cities such as New York, London, and Beijing.
The spacecraft was hurtling at 27,000 kilometers per hour. Although it would be slowed by the Earth’s atmosphere, its impact could be as dramatic as that of the planes that crashed into the Twin Towers in 2001. This threat, worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster, would have unleashed global paranoia had it not been for the fact that the human race was preoccupied with other news (Donald Trump’s ravings, the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the endless war in Ukraine, the election of the new Pope, the theft of Kim Kardashian’s jewelry…).
Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, casts a spell when she is close: “Venus, sick with desire, approaches,” writes Shakespeare in a sonnet. However, the planet that bears her name and rules the signs of Libra and Taurus also allows us to remember another variant of desire: impossible love. Venus is uncharted territory.
The United States prefers to focus on Mars, and other countries’ expeditions have been consigned to rust and oblivion. The European probe Venus Express has been silent for a decade, and in 2024, Japan lost contact with the Akatsuki spacecraft, sent to the planet of clouds.
Kosmos 482 ended its odyssey sadly, with no one watching its descent in flames. Upon returning to Ithaca, Ulysses was at least recognized by his dog.
Although the crash of the Soviet spacecraft caused no damage, it forces us to think that space debris continues to fall on Earth. At the bottom of the Indian Ocean lies the capsule marked with the letters CCCP in red ink. Fish in the depths explore the instruments of an old technology, destined to win the space race.
In a science fiction fable, the capsule would not only return burned by the sky, but would also bring something from 1972, the year of its departure. It is worth putting some of the events of that time into perspective: ping-pong paved the diplomatic way for Nixon to go to China and shake hands with Mao; that scene of peace contrasted with the eleven Israeli athletes murdered by the Black September terrorist group at the Munich Olympics. Fifty-three years later, the United States is threatening China, and Israel is preparing to take Palestine.
But the amazement of that time was not only political. The most profound news is often of a different kind: 1972 was the longest year in history.
The Earth’s rotation is slowing down, and in the future, the day will last 25 hours. To adjust to the solar calendar, Coordinated Universal Time adds a second every 800 days. But in 1972, it added two, something unusual.
The addition of a second is usually announced six months in advance so that we can decide how to use the extra time. If we had two extra seconds, what would we do with them?
The adventure that never made it to Venus ended up in a much stranger place, where destiny can depend on scoring a decisive goal, biting into the forbidden apple, or watching it fall from a tree.
On Earth, the gravity of things is revealed in two seconds.
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