July 27, 2012

In the Loop: New Questions, New Answers from the RBSP Team

On Thursday, July 26, the RBSP Mechanical Team lifts and installs the flight separation system on spacecraft B in preparation for the July 27 spacecraft A and B stacking operation at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla. Credit: JHU/APL.

• What are the radiation belts?
• Why does RBSP need two spacecraft?
• How does RBSP communicate with Earth?

You can find many answers to these and almost 30 other questions on our recently updated “Conversations With the Team” interactive page. We’ve just added more than 40 new interview clips, some of which were filmed just a few weeks ago as RBSP is now less than 30 days from scheduled launch on August 23, 2012.

Visit the “Conversations With the Team” page here: http://rbsp.jhuapl.edu/mission/conversation/overview/index.php

Simply click on a question you’d like to find out more about, then select from a variety of short insightful answers provided by team members.

The Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission is part of NASA’s Living With a Star program, which is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., manages the mission and is building and will operate the RBSP spacecraft for NASA.