Payload (satellite)
SMILE
SMILE is a satellite launched 2026-05-19 by European Space Agency.
About
Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a spacecraft mission of the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched on 19 May 2026 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. SMILE will image for the first time the magnetosphere of the Earth in soft X-rays and UV during up to 40 hours per orbit, improving the understanding of the dynamic interaction between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere. The mission is estimated to last for three years. The prime science questions of the SMILE mission involve the fundamental modes of dayside solar wind-magnetosphere interaction, the processes defining the substorm cycle, and how coronal mass ejection-driven storms develop and relate to substorms.
Right now
Dotted: where it has been. Solid: the next orbit and a half. Orbit data from CelesTrak, map from NASA Blue Marble. All credits