ESA and CAS declare Smile spacecraft ready for science operations
ESA · Chinese Academy of Sciences
ESA says Smile has released its first science images: an auroral substorm from UVI and a supernova-remnant test shot from its X-ray camera.
updates
- 2026-10-05ESA's own mission page now shows Smile's first released images: a July 24 UVI auroral-substorm view and an SXI test shot of Cassiopeia A, with the main X-ray magnetopause image still pending mid-October.
what happened
ESA said the Smile spacecraft, a joint mission with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was declared ready to begin science operations on 23 September, after a commissioning period that started once Smile reached its science orbit on 20 June following its 19 May launch. Commissioning included deploying mechanisms, switching on units, and testing Smile's four instruments: the soft X-ray imager, ultraviolet aurora imager, magnetometer and light ion analyser. ESA's own mission page says Smile's ultraviolet aurora imager (UVI) captured footage of an auroral substorm on 24 July, two weeks after it was switched on, and that the soft X-ray imager (SXI) has also been switched on and taken its first images, showing the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, though stray earthshine when the camera points toward Earth means engineers expect the first good X-ray view of the magnetopause only around mid-October, per Tech Times.
why it matters
ESA and CAS declaring Smile operational and now releasing its first images confirms the joint mission is delivering on its science goals: continuous imaging of Earth's magnetic boundary and aurora, the first such global view in 18 years. The still-pending X-ray magnetopause image is the mission's main scientific payoff, expected once seasonal stray light clears in mid-October.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- ESA, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Category
- science
- Impact
- noise
- SNR
- 5 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-23
- Published
- 2026-09-30 13:14 UTC