KSC-2012-3132

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Barely visible behind equipment, a technician uses a black light to inspect one of NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes inside the clean room high bay at Astrotech payload processing facility. Black light inspection uses UVA fluorescence to detect possible microcontamination, small cracks or fluid leaks. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes, or 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. 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. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett