It was a 250-kilogram (550 lb) spacecraft, which was built by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and was used as a radar calibration target for anti-ballistic missile tests.

[1] Kosmos 472 was successfully launched into low Earth orbit on 25 January 1972, with the rocket lifting off at 11:15:01 UTC.

[2] The launch took place from Site 133/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,[3] and used a Kosmos-2I 63SM carrier rocket.

[4] The North American Aerospace Defense Command assigned it the catalogue number 05804.

[1][6] It remained in orbit until it decayed and reentered the atmosphere on 18 August 1972.