NASA Launches Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission

Aug. 30, 2012

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
321-867-2468
george.h.diller@nasa.gov

Geoffrey Brown
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
240-228-5618 or 443-778-5618
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu

RELEASE: 12-289

NASA LAUNCHES RADIATION BELT STORM PROBES MISSION

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the first
twin-spacecraft mission designed to explore our planet's radiation
belts, launched into the predawn skies at 4:05a.m. EDT Thursday from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

"Scientists will learn in unprecedented detail how the radiation belts
are populated with charged particles, what causes them to change and
how these processes affect the upper reaches of the atmosphere around
Earth," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington. "The
information collected from these probes will benefit the public by
allowing us to better protect our satellites and understand how space
weather affects communications and technology on Earth."

The two satellites, each weighing just less than 1,500 pounds,
comprise the first dual-spacecraft mission specifically created to
investigate this hazardous regions of near-Earth space, known as the
radiation belts. These two belts, named for their discoverer, James
Van Allen, encircle the planet and are filled with highly charged
particles. The belts are affected by solar storms and coronal mass
ejections and sometimes swell dramatically. When this occurs, they
can pose dangers to communications, GPS satellites and human
spaceflight.

"We have never before sent such comprehensive and high-quality
instruments to study high radiation regions of space," said Barry
Mauk, RBSP project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University's
Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. "RBSP was crafted to
help us learn more about, and ultimately predict, the response of the
radiation belts to solar inputs."

The hardy RBSP satellites will spend the next 2 years looping through
every part of both Van Allen belts. By having two spacecraft in
different regions of the belts at the same time, scientists finally
will be able to gather data from within the belts themselves,
learning how they change over space and time. Designers fortified
RBSP with special protective plating and rugged electronics to
operate and survive within this punishing region of space that other
spacecraft avoid. In addition, a space weather broadcast will
transmit selected data from those instruments around the clock,
giving researchers a check on current conditions near Earth.

"The excitement of seeing the spacecraft in orbit and beginning to
perform science measurements is like no other thrill," said Richard
Fitzgerald, RBSP project manager at APL. "The entire RBSP team, from
across every organization, worked together to produce an amazing pair
of spacecraft."

RBSP was lifted into orbit aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space
Launch Complex-41, as the rocket's plume lit the dark skies over the
Florida coast. The first RBSP spacecraft is scheduled to separate
from the Atlas rocket's Centaur booster 1 hour, 18 minutes, 52
seconds after launch. The second RBSP spacecraft is set to follow 12
minutes, 14 seconds later. Mission controllers using APL's 60-foot
satellite dish will establish radio contact with each probe
immediately after separation.

During the next 60 days, operators will power up all flight systems
and science instruments and deploy long antenna booms, two of which
are more than 54 yards long. Data about the particles that swirl
through the belts, and the fields and waves that transport them, will
be gathered by five instrument suites designed and operated by teams
at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark; the University
of Iowa in Iowa City; University of Minnesota in Minneapolis; and the
University of New Hampshire in Durham; and the National
Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, Va. The data will be analyzed by
scientists across the nation almost immediately.

RBSP is the second mission in NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) program
to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly
affect life and society. LWS is managed by the agency's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. APL built the RBSP spacecraft and
will manage the mission for NASA. NASA's Launch Services Program at
Kennedy is responsible for launch management. United Launch Alliance
provided the Atlas V launch service.

For more information about NASA's RBSP mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp


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