Smile launch reset for May 19 after Vega C review

by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 23, 2026
The European-Chinese Smile mission is now due to launch on May 19, 2026, at 05:52 CEST on a Vega-C rocket after partners completed investigations into a technical issue found in the production line of a Vega-C subsystem component.

ESA said the earlier launch target was postponed as a precaution. The agency said both the Smile spacecraft and the Vega-C launcher assigned to the mission remain stable and safe.

Smile is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The spacecraft will study how Earth responds to streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the Sun. It will do that with an X-ray camera designed to make the first X-ray observations of Earth's magnetic field and an ultraviolet camera able to watch the northern lights continuously for up to 45 hours at a time.

Launch preparations have continued at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. In March, teams fuelled the spacecraft, integrated it with the Vega-C rocket adapter and enclosed it inside the launcher fairing.

During ascent, the four stages of Vega-C will separate in sequence before the launcher releases Smile after 57 minutes. Six minutes later, the spacecraft's solar panels are scheduled to unfold, marking the milestone that confirms launch success.

After separation, Smile will first enter low Earth orbit and then use its own propulsion to reach its final egg-shaped orbit. That trajectory will take the spacecraft as far as 121,000 km above the North Pole to collect data before it returns to about 5,000 km above the South Pole to transmit data to ground stations.

Smile, short for Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, carries four science instruments to examine how Earth reacts to the solar wind. The mission is intended to improve understanding of solar storms, geomagnetic storms and the wider science of space weather.

ESA is providing the payload module, which carries three of the four science instruments, along with one of the instruments itself, the soft X-ray imager. ESA also supplies the launcher and the assembly, integration and testing facilities and services, contributes to the ultraviolet imager and supports mission operations once the spacecraft is in orbit.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences provides the spacecraft platform and the other three science instruments, and it is responsible for operating the spacecraft in orbit. Smile flies as part of ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and contributes to the question of how the Solar System works.

Vega-C is Europe's launcher for small scientific and Earth observation missions. The 35 m rocket can place 2,300 kg into space and uses three solid-propellant stages followed by a liquid-propellant upper stage for precise orbital insertion. ESA leads the Vega-C programme with Avio as prime contractor and design authority, and for this mission Avio is also the launch service operator.