Sino-European SMILE Satellite Enters Final Launch Countdown

The Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), jointly developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA), has completed all pre-launch preparations at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, according to a report from Guangming Net.

The satellite, also known as "SMILE Satellite", has now completed docking with the adapter of the Vega-C launch vehicle and is scheduled to be launched at local time April 9 (afternoon Beijing time), marking that the mission has entered the final launch countdown phase.

Since passing the China-ESA joint factory acceptance review on October 28, 2025, the SMILE mission has fully entered the launch implementation phase. At the end of November 2025, the propellant required for the satellite departed from Shanghai and arrived at the Kourou Port in early February 2026 before being transported to the launch site.

On February 11, 2026, the flight model satellite and ground inspection equipment departed from the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the cargo ship "Hummingbird" from the Port of Amsterdam, and arrived at the Kourou Port on February 26, 2026, before being smoothly transported to the launch site.

Upon arrival at the launch site, the China-ESA joint test team immediately launched intensive testing work. The test results showed that all systems of the satellite are in stable condition and their performance meets expectations. The completion of the satellite-rocket docking indicates that all pre-launch preparations for the satellite are in place.

The SMILE mission is China’s first mission-level, all-round in-depth cooperative space science exploration mission with the ESA, and also the concluding project of the CAS Space Science Pilot Program (Phase II). The satellite will pioneeringly adopt soft X-ray imaging technology to realize the first global imaging of the large-scale structure of the Earth’s magnetosphere, providing an innovative observation method to reveal the mysteries of the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere.

This mission is expected to achieve a series of original major scientific breakthroughs in fields such as space weather forecasting and the basic understanding of magnetospheric physics. The SMILE satellite is designed to observe the dynamic interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere, which is of great scientific significance for deepening the understanding of the Sun-Earth connection.

At present, the launch window has been determined. The China-ESA joint team is closely monitoring and confirming the weather at the launch site as well as the final technical status of the rocket and satellite, making every effort to ensure the on-schedule and successful launch of the SMILE satellite and jointly open a new journey of cooperation between China and Europe in the field of space science exploration.