Technicians monitor the progress as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes or RBSP spacecraft B is lowered to a horizontal position.

Inside the Astrotech payload processing facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians monitor the progress as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or RBSP, spacecraft B is lowered to a horizontal position. The RBSP had been in a vertical position for testing.

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 a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Launch is targeted for Aug. 23. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett