Some recent spaceflight spectacles offer hints about what you might see if Kosmos 482 happens to fall through the sky above you.

Time was, the Soviet Union fairly owned Venus. From 1961 to 1983, the U.S.’s old space race rival launched 16 probes, Venera 1 through Venera 16, that either flew by, orbited, or landed on Venus—with three of them failing en route.