Europe-China Solar Science Mission: What is SMILE about to Discover? | ESA
What happens when the Sun’s charged particles slam into Earth’s magnetic shield?
SMILE is about to reveal it for the first time.
The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
SMILE will use four science instruments to study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the Sun. In doing so, SMILE will improve our understanding of solar storms, geomagnetic storms, and the science of space weather. This groundbreaking mission will observe Earth’s magnetosphere in X-rays while capturing the northern lights in ultraviolet, offering an entirely new way to see how our planet defends itself from solar storms.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is responsible for providing SMILE’s payload module (carrying three of the four science instruments), one of the spacecraft’s four science instruments (the soft X-ray imager, SXI), the launcher, and the Assembly Integration and Testing facilities and services. ESA contributes to a second science instrument (the ultraviolet imager, UVI) and the mission operations once SMILE is in orbit.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences provides the other three science instruments and the spacecraft platform, and is responsible for operating the spacecraft in orbit.
SMILE is part of ESA's Cosmic Vision program, principally contributing to answering the question ‘How does the Solar System work?’
SMILE will launch aboard a Vega-C rocket on April 9, 2026.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Smile
Duration: 5 minutes
Release Date: March 30, 2026
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