NASA says 660-pound satellite heading to Earth; chances low it will hit someone

A 660-pound satellite is expected to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere after more than 20 years orbiting the planet.

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According to NASA, most of the satellite – called the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager spacecraft, or RHESSI – will burn up upon reentry, but parts of it will likely survive and land somewhere on Earth late Wednesday or early Thursday.

The Department of Defense predicted the satellite will reenter the atmosphere at approximately 9:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, with an uncertainty of +/- 16 hours. NASA and the Defense Department will continue to monitor reentry and update predictions.

Where the parts may land is unclear, but NASA says the chance of it hitting someone is pretty low.

“The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is low — approximately 1 in 2,467,” NASA said in a statement.

According to the space agency, the satellite has recorded 100,000 X-ray events, as well as gamma-ray images from solar flares. It also captured terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or bursts that occur over lightning storms on Earth.

The spacecraft was launched in 2002 from aboard an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket.

The craft was decommissioned in 2018 due to “communications difficulties.