ESA’s SMILE mission is a collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Smile mission, a collaboration between the ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), aims to better understand the interaction between the Sun and the Earth.
The successful review confirms that the SMILE mission has met all requirements for launch.
The launch window for the Smile mission is set for April 8th to May 7th in 2026.
The European Space Agency's Smile mission has passed its qualification and flight acceptance review.
The SMILE mission is a joint initiative between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The Smile mission successfully completed its ten-month Assembly, Integration and Testing phase from November 2024 to September 2025 at ESA’s technical centre, ESTEC, in the Netherlands.
The Sino-European SMILE mission is ready for launch in early 2026.
ESA signed a launch contract on 2024-04-30 with Arianespace for Vega C to launch the SMILE mission into a highly elliptical orbit in late 2025.
The SMILE mission was selected in 2015 from 13 joint Sino-European proposals.
The SMILE mission was on-track for launch in 2025 pending confirmation at a Critical Design Review foreseen to take place in mid-2023.
ESA and CNSA are working together on the Solar wind-Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) mission planned for launch in 2023.