Van Allen Probes
Understanding Earth's Van Allen Belts
The Van Allen Probes mission, previously known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission, is part of NASA’s program to explore fundamental processes that operate throughout the solar system, in particular those that generate hazardous space weather effects near the Earth and phenomena that could affect solar system exploration. The Van Allen Probes are enabling us to understand the Sun’s influence on the Earth and near-Earth space by studying the planet’s radiation belts on various scales of space and time.
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Launch Date: August 30, 2012
Mission Duration: 7 years
Extended Mission: 2019, deactivated due to fuel
Lead Institution: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL)
Partners: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of California, Berkeley, University of New Hampshire, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Southwest Research Institute, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Aerospace Corporation, National Reconnaissance Office