FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP) ...

WASHINGTON — A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its ...

On Dec. 10, 1977, the Soviet union launched the first crew to complete a long-duration mission to the Salyut 6 space station.

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP) ...

It began in 1957 when the Soviet Union sent Sputnik 1, the first satellite into Earth’s orbit. About four years later, astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth. In the early ’60s, ...