Atlas V lifts NASA radiation belt probes to orbit

Pat Corkery / ULA

Atlas V lifts NASA radiation belt probes to orbit | FLORIDA TODAY | floridatoday.com: " A two-year mission to study Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts is under way after a successful launch this morning from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Twin NASA probes were deployed about 80 minutes and 90 minutes after their 4:05 a.m. blastoff atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, prompting cheers from the launch team.

"I’m very happy to report we have two healthy spacecraft on orbit," Rick Fitzgerald, mission project manager from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a post-launch press conference."