OREANDA-NEWS  The Vega-C rocket with the European-Chinese Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) satellite launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana. This is reported by Space.com .

The VV29 mission started on May 19 at 06:52 Moscow time. The SMILE spacecraft was launched into a low-Earth orbit about 700 kilometers high 56 minutes after the launch of the carrier. Within 25 days, the satellite will enter an elliptical orbit with an apogee of 121,000 kilometers and a perigee of 5,000 kilometers.

The 2.5-ton SMILE is designed to study the interaction of particles coming from the Sun and radiation with the Earth's magnetosphere. The data obtained during his work is planned to be used to predict the impact of space weather on satellites.