After applying to a few NASA Socials this year I was finally accepted to the Radiation Belt Storm Probe launch. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing and actually looking forward to the drive down to Kennedy Space Center. The launch itself is taking place on August 23rd at 4:08am. I’m not terribly fond of the launch time although it should still be dark at that time of morning. I hear night launches are spectacular and that should more than make up for the early wake up time.

The mission will focus on studying the Earth’s Van Allen Radiation Belts and how the sun influences these phenomena. I’m hoping to learn a great deal more about the mission during the briefings at KSC this week. Solar science wasn’t really my research focus in undergrad or grad school so I don’t know a great deal about it. Understanding the solar weather and the radiation belt environment is essential to future satellite and spacecraft design.

I’ll be posting updates on Twitter and Google Plus, maybe on Facebook but the first two get priority. Hopefully the blog will get some #RBSP love too.