China-Europe space science SMILE mission set for April 9 launch
By Li Menghan |
chinadaily.com.cn |
Updated: 2026-03-26 15:14
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Solar wind is a high-speed plasma flow originating from the sun, whose interaction with Earth's magnetosphere can trigger space weather events that threaten the safety of orbiting satellites, the accuracy of navigation and positioning, the stability of communication links, and the operation of power grids in high-latitude regions.
The SMILE mission, China's first comprehensive, mission-level space science partnership with the European Space Agency, will pioneer the use of a wide-field soft X-ray imager to achieve the first-ever global imaging of Earth's magnetospheric boundaries, providing transformative insights into solar-terrestrial interactions and potential breakthroughs in space weather science.
