内容摘要：CHONG: Fifty-some odd years! We’ve been together longer than he’s been with his wife and I’ve been with my wife. It’s something. Chances are, we’ll still be together when he gets another wife.

CHONG: Fifty-some odd years! We’ve been together longer than he’s been with his wife and I’ve been with my wife. It’s something. Chances are, we’ll still be together when he gets another wife.

The object is relatively small and, even if it doesn’t break apart, “the risk is similar to that of a, several of which happen each year. You run a bigger risk of getting hit by lightning in your lifetime,” he said.

The chance of the spacecraft actually hitting someone or something is small, he added. “But it cannot be completely excluded.”The Soviet Union launched the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 in 1972, one of a series of Venus missions. But it never made it out of Earth orbit because of a rocket malfunction.Most of it came tumbling down within a decade. But Langbroek and others believe the landing capsule itself — a spherical object about 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter — has been circling the world in a highly elliptical orbit for the past 53 years, gradually dropping in altitude.

It’s quite possible that the 1,000-pound-plus (nearly 500-kilogram) spacecraft will survive reentry. It was built to withstand a descent through the carbon dioxide-thick atmosphere of Venus, said Langbroek of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.Experts doubt the parachute system would work after so many years. The heat shield may also be compromised after so long in orbit.

It would be better if the heat shield fails, which would cause the spacecraft to burn up during its dive through the atmosphere, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Jonathan McDowell said in an email. But if the heat shield holds, “it’ll reenter intact and you have a half-ton metal object falling from the sky.”

The spacecraft could reenter anywhere between 51.7 degrees north and south latitude, or as far north as London and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, almost all the way down to South America’s Cape Horn. But since most of the planet is water, “chances are good it will indeed end up in some ocean,” Langbroek said.They’ve maybe even grown wiser, too. As Chong explained over breakfast, they’re reluctant to talk politics. “We’re very deportable,” he said with a grin.

Marin and Chong with their career achievement in comedy award at the Big Screen Achievement Awards during CinemaCon 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)Marin and Chong with their career achievement in comedy award at the Big Screen Achievement Awards during CinemaCon 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

CHEECH: I wish they had done even more on our early days because we were trying to figure out who each other were. “What are you? How come you’re named Chong?”CHONG: The thing is, he was a fugitive. So in order to come into the States, he had to take a chance. He had already sneaked up to Canada. The next thing you know, he meets me and we’re going back to the States!