At Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station technicians prepare to lift the Centaur stage.

At Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., United Launch Alliance technicians prepare to lift the Centaur stage for mating with the Atlas V rocket, which will launch the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, spacecraft.

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 liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V from Cape Canaveral. Liftoff is targeted for Aug. 23, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann