A NASA spacecraft could crash into the Earth today. The chances of it hitting someone are tiny, but not zero

The Van Allen Probe A, which launched in 2012, is coming home. Here’s the latest update on what will hopefully be an uneventful reentry.

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In 2012, NASA launched two probes into space: Van Allen Probe A and Van Allen Probe B. Their goal was to collect data on charged particles passing through Earth’s magnetic field.

Those particles can wreak havoc on communications and other technologies on our planet, so understanding them is important.

In 2019, the Van Allen Probes’ mission ended. With its fuel spent, the “A” probe is set to reenter Earth’s atmosphere today, and the parts of it that are not burned up upon reentry may crash onto our planet in the next 24 hours.

Here’s what you need to know.

Which probe is crashing?

Thankfully, we only need to worry about one probe crashing into Earth today. That one is the Van Allen Probe A. The Van Allen Probe B isn’t scheduled to reenter Earth’s atmosphere until at least 2030.

Still, that means there is one 1,323-pound space object expected to hit Earth within the next 24 hours. The good news is that NASA says much of the probe is expected to burn up upon reentry. However, the space agency does caution that “some components are expected to survive re-entry” as well.

When will the probe hit Earth?

NASA says the Van Allen Probe A is expected to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere at around 7:45 p.m. EDT on March 10—“with an uncertainty of +/- 24 hours.”

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