We didn’t know the ‘where’, only the ‘when’. After 14 years in space, it was expected that between Tuesday and Wednesday NASA’s 600 kg Van Allen Probe A spacecraft would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and that some of its components would survive the difficult journey. The place where it should fall was, even for the North American space agency, a mystery. This Wednesday confirmation arrived: the spacecraft contacted the atmosphere at 10:30 am and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
“The US Space Force has confirmed that the Van Allen Probe spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere over the eastern Pacific Ocean,” reads a statement from the US space agency. “NASA expected most of the spacecraft to disintegrate upon entering the atmosphere, but it is possible that some components survived re-entry,” he adds.
After 14 years in space, a 600-kilo NASA satellite returns to Earth — and it is not known where it will fall
The spacecraft and its twin — Van Allen Probe B — were designed to “fly through the Van Allen radiation belts, rings of charged particles trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field.” The objective was to understand how the belts worked, which protect the Earth from cosmic radiation, solar storms and the constant flow of solar wind, which are harmful to humans and technologies.
Van Allen Probes A and B were launched on August 30, 2012 for what was expected to be a two-year mission. However, The spacecraft ended up collecting “unprecedented data” on Earth’s two permanent radiation belts for almost seven years. NASA ended the mission after the spacecraft’s fuel reserves ran out and they were no longer able to orient themselves toward the sun.
One of the main discoveries of the Van Allen spacecraft was that there is a third transient radiation belt, which can form during periods of intense solar activity. NASA highlights that even today the data collected helps to understand space weather and its effects. “By analyzing archive data from the mission, scientists study the radiation belts that surround the Earth, which are essential for predicting how solar activity impacts satellites, astronauts and even terrestrial systems, such as communications, navigation and electrical grids”, he notes.
NASA even estimated that the satellite would return to Earth in 2034. However, the calculations were ineffective because “they were made before the current solar cycle, which proved to be much more active than expected” and ended up changing the predictions. It arrived this Wednesday, leaving the twin behind. This should only re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in 2030.
