Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana and Charlie Bolden listen as a technician talks about the Radiation Belt Storm Probes.

Inside the Astrotech payload processing facility near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from left, Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden listen as a technician talks about 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. As the spacecraft orbits Earth, the four solar panels will continuously face the sun to provide constant power to its instruments. The boom will provide data of the electric fields that energize radiation particles and modify the structure of the inner magnetosphere. 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