A mission science briefing was held at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Press Site for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes or RBSP mission.

A mission science briefing was held at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site in Florida for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, mission. From left, are George Diller, public affairs specialist and news conference moderator, Mona Kessel, RBSP program scientist from NASA Headquarters in Washington, Nicola Fox, RBSP deputy project scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., Craig Kletzing, principal investigator from the University of Iowa, Harlan Spence, principal investigator from the University of New Hampshire, and Lou Lanzerotti, principal investigator from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

NASA’s RBSP mission will help us understand the sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the Earth’s radiation belts on various scales of space and time. RBSP will begin its mission of exploration of Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts and the extremes of space weather after its launch aboard an Atlas V rocket. Launch is targeted for Aug. 24. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson