A NASA satellite weighing over 1,300 pounds will crash back down to Earth on Tuesday after spending 14 years in space, the agency said.
The spacecraft, named Van Allen Probe A, is predicted to crash down at approximately 7:45 p.m. ET, plus or minus 24 hours.
The U.S. Space Force expects most of the spacecraft to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere back down to Earth, but some components will survive re-entry.
NASA said the risk of harm to anyone on Earth is low, with odds of about 1 in 4,200.
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Van Allen Probe A and its twin, Van Allen Probe B, launched on Aug. 30, 2012, originally designed for a two-year mission.
The spacecraft flew through the Van Allen belts — rings of charged particles trapped by Earth's magnetic field — from 2012 to 2019, gathering unprecedented data on Earth's permanent radiation belts, which are named for scientist James Van Allen.
The belts shield Earth from cosmic radiation, solar storms, and the constantly streaming solar wind that are harmful to humans and can damage technology.
The NASA mission, managed and operated by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, made several major discoveries about how the radiation belts operate, including the first data showing the existence of a transient third radiation belt, which can form during times of intense solar activity, said NASA.
NASA ended the mission after the two spacecraft ran out of fuel and were no longer able to orient themselves toward the sun.
Originally, the space agency calculated that the spacecraft would re-enter Earth in 2034, but new calculations made with the current solar cycle in mind confirmed they would land earlier.
Van Allen Probe B, the twin of the re-entering spacecraft, is not expected to re-enter before 2030.
