SMILE in space: China, EU joint planet defence satellite defies earthly tensions

SMILE in space: China, EU joint planet defence satellite defies earthly tensionsLaunch of satellite to study Earth’s magnetic shield hailed by lead scientists as result of ‘true 50/50 collaboration’3-MIN READ3-MIN1ListenPublished: 9:00pm, 20 May 2026China and Europe on Tuesday launched their first jointly developed satellite, a space mission that will explore the precise mechanism of the Earth’s defence against solar wind.The successful collaboration on the solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) comes as Beijing and Brussels are locked in escalating trade and geopolitical tensions, largely driven by the European Union’s massive trade deficit with China.The satellite has been jointly designed and developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the European Space Agency (ESA), under a project launched in 2015 to create the most powerful tool for studying the Earth’s magnetic environment.Select VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x