Kathy Winters answers a question during a prelaunch news conference held for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes or RBSP mission.

At NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site in Florida, Kathy Winters, launch weather officer with the 45th Weather Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, answers a question during a prelaunch news conference held for the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, mission. To her left, are Vernon Thorp, United Launch Alliance program manager, NASA missions, and Richard Fitzgerald, RBSP project manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

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