A big NASA satellite crashed back to Earth on Wednesday morning (March 11) after nearly 14 years in orbit.
The spacecraft in question is the 1,323-pound (600-kilogram) Van Allen Probe A, which launched in August 2012 along with its twin, Van Allen Probe B, to study the radiation belts around Earth for which they’re named.
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“The U.S. Space Force confirmed the Van Allen Probe spacecraft reentered the atmosphere at 6:37 a.m. EDT [1037 GMT] on Wednesday over the eastern Pacific Ocean region, at approximately 2 degrees south latitude and 255.3 degrees east longitude,” a NASA spokesperson said in an emailed statement on Wednesday evening.
“NASA expected most of the spacecraft to burn up as it traveled through the atmosphere, but some components may have survived reentry,” the spokesperson added.
The reentry date and time were in line with predictions: On Monday afternoon (March 9), the Space Force forecast that the satellite would reenter Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday (March 10) at 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT), plus or minus 24 hours.
NASA officials had previously said that there’s just a 1-in-4,200 chance that Van Allen Probe A will hurt anyone during its reentry. That low risk of injury — about 0.02% — takes into account the fact that water covers about 70% of Earth’s surface. So, any parts that survive reentry were likely to splash down in the open ocean, not land in or around a city.
The Van Allen Probes — which were originally called the Radiation Belt Storm Probes — launched to a highly elliptical orbit, which took them as far away from Earth as 18,900 miles (30,415 kilometers) and brought them as close as 384 miles (618 km).
The mission was supposed to last just two years, but the spacecraft managed to continue operating until July 2019 (Probe B) and October 2019 (Probe A). They gathered data that scientists and mission planners analyze to this day.
“By reviewing archived data from the mission, scientists study the radiation belts surrounding Earth, which are key to predicting how solar activity impacts satellites, astronauts, and even systems on Earth such as communications, navigation and power grids,” NASA officials said in a statement this week. “By observing these dynamic regions, the Van Allen Probes contributed to improving forecasts of space weather events and their potential consequences.”
Both probes were expected to stay up in Earth orbit until 2034. However, the sun has been unexpectedly active in recent years, causing our planet’s atmosphere to expand and frictional drag on orbiting satellites to increase.
Such effects have likely shortened Van Allen Probe B’s time in space as well, but less dramatically than its twin’s. Probe B isn’t expected to reenter before 2030, according to NASA.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:10 p.m. ET on March 11 with news of Van Allen Probe A’s reentry.
