Europe is providing SMILE’s payload module, the Soft X-ray Imager, and launch services.
SMILE’s mission is intended to support space weather forecasting and prediction after sufficient data is gathered.
On April 3, the European Space Agency said that SMILE had been stacked atop its Vega-C rocket on the launch pad after testing and checkouts.
Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is producing the China-made spacecraft platform components for SMILE.
SMILE’s instruments will study Earth’s magnetosphere and its interaction with charged particles from the Sun.
At the end of March, SMILE was lifted onto Vega-C’s payload adapter and encapsulated between two fairing halves.
SMILE is scheduled to launch as soon as April 9 from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.
Vega-C’s launch of SMILE will last just over an hour and place the spacecraft into an approximately 700-kilometer Earth orbit.
The European Space Agency is responsible for the X-ray imager, the Vega-C rocket, the payload module that will host three of the four scientific instruments, and the integration and test facilities for Smile.
Smile carries a camera for recording auroras.
Smile is a scientific cooperation mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Smile will combine SXI and UVI images to observe how collisions between the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field produce auroras.
The Smile spacecraft will separate from the Vega-C rocket 57 minutes after launch.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for the ultraviolet imaging instruments, the magnetometer, the ion analyzer, the spacecraft platform, assembly and testing, and part of the space operations for Smile.
The European Space Agency has invested 130 million euros in the Smile program.
Smile will reach a final orbit about 121,000 kilometers above the North Pole.
Smile is scheduled to launch on April 9 at 08:29 from the European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana on a Vega-C rocket.
Smile will deploy its solar panels after separation from Vega-C.
Smile carries a magnetograph provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to measure the magnetic field of solar storms.
Smile can observe auroras for 45 continuous hours.