May 20, 2026
SMILE space mission launch a success
The smooth blast-off of a sleek European Space Agency (ESA) rocket will give University of Calgary researchers additional insight into Earth’s electromagnetic defences.
The SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) mission, jointly run by the ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana around 9:52 p.m., MT, on May 18.
Watch the launch below. Story continues under the video.
SMILE will use four science instruments to study how Earth responds to the solar wind from the sun.
The mission is being supported by researchers at UCalgary, who designed and still operate a continent-wide network of ground-based cameras known as all-sky imagers (ASIs). The imagers will help connect observations made in space with those made from the ground, giving scientists a more complete picture of the Earth’s interaction with the sun.
It will take 42 days for the SMILE satellite to reach its intended orbit.
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