SMILE will provide the first complete image of how Earth’s magnetic field reacts to the solar wind.
Axon’ Cable provides high-performance wiring for SMILE using MicroMach connectors and low-mass SpaceWire cables.
UK scientists lead the SMILE Soft X-ray Imager, or SXI, instrument.
SMILE is designed to study solar wind interactions with Earth’s magnetosphere.
The Payload Adapter System developed in Linköping provides the structural and mechanical interface between Vega-C and the SMILE satellite.
Beyond Gravity produced SMILE launch hardware at facilities in Linköping, Sweden, Emmen, Switzerland, and Gothenburg, Sweden.
The SMILE payload fairing is made from carbon-fiber-reinforced composite material.
The Emmen, Switzerland facility produced a nine-meter-long, two-piece payload fairing for SMILE.
SMILE’s data is expected to provide new insights for space weather forecasting and the protection of orbital and terrestrial systems.
SMILE is scheduled to launch aboard a Vega-C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana in May.
Avio built the Vega-C launch vehicle that will carry SMILE.
Beyond Gravity’s Fairing Acoustic Protection system reduces launch noise to levels safe for SMILE’s sensitive instruments.
Beyond Gravity developed and manufactured four SMILE launch systems: the payload adapter, payload fairing, acoustic protection system, and on-board computer.
SMILE is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The payload fairing shields SMILE from thermal, acoustic, and mechanical stresses during ascent and is jettisoned by an automatic pyrotechnic separation system after the rocket clears the upper atmosphere.
The SMILE launch was the 29th launch in the Vega program and the seventh for Vega C.
SMILE will later move to a highly elliptical final orbit with an apogee of 121,000 kilometers and a perigee of 5,000 kilometers.
SMILE represents the first full-cooperation mission between Europe and China.
SMILE includes an Ultraviolet Imager, a magnetometer, and a light-ion analyzer.
ESA's SMILE funding was distributed through more than 25 procurement contracts with more than 40 companies and institutes.