The invisible bubble that protects us from the Sun. SMILE set off on a Vega C to photograph it

SMILE is the first satellite designed to observe the entire magnetosphere as a system, thanks to four instruments: the Soft X-ray Imager, developed by Esa with a consortium led by the University of Leicester, capable of making the first X-ray observations of the Earth's magnetic field; the Ultraviolet Imager, provided by Cas with an Esa contribution, for northern lights; the Light Ion Analyser and magnetometer, both Chinese, to measure plasma ions and magnetic field.

Whereas previous missions have studied local effects, such as someone trying to describe a storm by measuring the rain at a single point, SMILE will look at the storm from above, continuously; it will photograph the magnetic bubble in its entirety, revealing where, when and why it responds to solar stress. Scientists expect its X-ray camera to reveal the smiley face after which the mission is named: the 'smile' on the edge of the magnetosphere facing the Sun, and the two 'eyes' at the magnetic holes at the Earth's north and south poles.

Fifty-seven minutes after liftoff, the satellite was released from the Colleferro-built launcher into a circular orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometres, just the first leg of a longer journey. Over the next twenty-five days, firing its engines eleven times, SMILE will lengthen its trajectory to its highly elliptical operational orbit. Only then will it begin its scientific mission, which is expected to last three years.

The SMILE launch was the seventh flight of the Vega-C and the second of the Vega family to carry an Esa science mission into orbit. More importantly, it was the first to be operated entirely by Avio.

To understand what this means, we need to go back to 10 July 2025, when the Esa Ministerial Council, meeting in Paris, approved the revision of the Launcher Exploitation Declaration. The document redesigned the governance of European launchers, separating what, until then, had been held together for historical rather than logical reasons: those who build the launcher and those who sell its transport services. From that date, Avio became the supplier of launch services for all Vega rockets, a responsibility that had previously belonged to Arianespace. The Launcher Exploitation Arrangements signed on 14 November 2025 translated this mandate into concrete agreements, defining the roles between Esa and the two operators: Arianespace for Ariane 6, Avio for Vega-C.

'This step represents the full maturity of those who do our job,' said Giulio Ranzo, freshly re-appointed as CEO. 'Taking over the management of launch operations also means taking on a greater responsibility, with respect to the safety of space flight. Everything went well, the mission is perfect'.

The start of SMILE is the first operational translation of these words. But getting there also required a race against the solar calendar. Carole Mundell, Esa's science director, explained why the time factor was non-negotiable: 'The mission was designed to be launched when the Sun's activity is at its most intense, as it is now: this is the most dangerous time for our infrastructure. As the activity passes the peak, we will see what changes. The next one will be in eleven years, we couldn't wait".

It was yet another proof of the reliability of Avio, which now faces a competitive market as never before. The Vega-C, a three-stage launcher capable of carrying up to two and a half tonnes at an altitude of 700 kilometres, is aiming for three launches in 2026, five in 2027 and six the year after. The company, which has a backlog of more than two billion, is also currently in advanced negotiations to supply its launch systems to US defence.

SMILE is also the result of a significant collaboration: the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences designed and built the on-board instruments together. And together they will manage the scientific data.

This is not an isolated case: in the field of space, scientific collaboration between Europe and China has deeper roots than the contemporary political debate suggests. Joint analysis of the Sun-Earth interaction had already begun with the Double Star mission, agreed in 2001 and conducted between 2003 and 2004 for the first measurements of plasma in the Earth's magnetic field. Since then, Esa has made hardware components for the Chang'e Moon missions, up to Chang'e 6 in 2024, which carried a European negative ion analyser, a French radon detector and a laser retroreflector made by Italia. In January 2024, China then launched the Einstein probe, with an X-ray telescope developed by Esa together with Cas. A thin thread, partially eroded by the increased strategic distance between Brussels and Beijing, but never completely broken.

In this context, however, SMILE represents a quantum leap. Wang Chi, director general of the National Space Center of the Chinese Space Agency (the Cnsa), does not hesitate to call it a new paradigm: a co-ownership of the whole system, from start to finish. "We will share every piece of scientific data. I think this establishes a new model of international cooperation, not only between China and Europe, but for the whole world'.

SMILE is for this reason a mission that is twice as relevant. Not only for what it will allow us to observe and understand better - the Sun, the magnetosphere, the mechanisms that regulate space weather - but for what it represents: a platform for scientific dialogue that survives the seasons of geopolitics. At a time when strategic autonomy has become the mantra of every European chancellery, SMILE demonstrates that there are domains in which international cooperation produces results that no one could achieve alone.