Sino-European joint space mission to send satellites in 2023

BEIJING -- The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced that a Sino-European joint space mission known as SMILE was launched Friday.

The Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer is a comprehensive collaboration between the CAS and the European Space Agency (ESA). Satellites will be launched by 2023 to study the impact of solar activity on the Earth's environment.

Wang Chi, director of National Space Science Center under the CAS, said the SMILE program would create images of interaction between solar winds and the Earth's magnetosphere with innovative X-ray and ultraviolet technologies.

It will achieve an overall imaging of large-scale structure of the Earth's space, which plays an important role in predicting and mitigating weather disasters, according to Wang.

SMILE has gathered the world's leading resources in space weather. The UK Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency will also participate.

China and Europe are responsible for the construction and operation of the application system. The data obtained by satellites in orbit will be available to all participating countries.