(NEXSTAR) – The majority of NASA’s Van Allen Probe A spacecraft is expected to burn up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday. But some of it won’t, by NASA and the U.S. Space Force’s own estimates. The probe, which was launched nearly 14 years ago alongside its “twin” spacecraft Van Allen Probe B, is making an earlier-than-planned return to Earth on March 10 at “approximately 7:45 p.m. EDT,” albeit with an uncertainty of “+/- 24 hours,” according to NASA. The space agency also said that “some components” of the 1,323-pound probe will likely survive re-entry. “The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is low — approximately 1 in 4,200,” reads an article published to NASA’s website on Monday. “NASA and Space Force will continue to monitor the re-entry and update predictions.” An online tracker operated by Keeptrack.Space showed the probe (formerly called the Radiation Belt Storm Probe A, or RBSP A), orbiting the Earth more than 7 kilometers per second as of Tuesday morning. Both of the Van Allen Probes were launched in August 2012 to help NASA gather information about the Van Allen radiation belts, which surround the Earth and protect the planet from solar winds and storms. The belts themselves are comprised of charged energy particles that have been trapped in space by the Earth’s magnetosphere. There are usually two such radiation belts surrounding the planet, but an additional belt can temporarily appear “during times of intense solar activity,” NASA explained. Understanding the behavior and makeup of the radiation belts can help scientists understand and prepare for the impacts of cosmic radiation and solar activity can affect “satellites, astronauts, and even systems on Earth such as communications, navigation, and power grids,” according to NASA. The Van Allen Probes, meanwhile, were only intended for a two-year mission, but ended up providing data for seven years. They were taken out of service in 2019 and placed in a lower orbit to prepare for their eventual re-entry. “The Van Allen Probes team did the impossible,” Jason Kalirai, the civil space mission area executive for the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab (APL), which had managed the probes’ missions, said in 2019. “They designed and built a resilient mission to fly in a region of space that other missions deliberately avoid. The resulting scientific data have transformed our understanding of the radiation belts and will benefit future NASA space science missions and human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.” At the time, APL had estimated that the Van Allen Probe A spacecraft would re-enter Earth’s atmosphere sometime in 2034, but a “more active” solar cycle pushed up re-entry to 2026. Van Allen Probe B, meanwhile, isn’t expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere until at least 2030, NASA said.