Cosmic Smile: SMILE Launch Signals China–EU Space Cooperation Era

The Vega-C rocket successfully launched the SMILE satellite, a joint China–ESA mission led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and ESA, featuring a new Soft X-ray Imager to study how the solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetosphere. The mission marks the first mission-level China–Europe space-science collaboration, with coordinated ground control and plans for future joint initiatives like the CATCH microsatellite constellation.