KOUROU, French Guiana, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE), a joint mission between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Space Agency(ESA), was successfully launched Tuesday aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

Following the launch, the satellite was confirmed to have entered its planned orbit, with its solar arrays successfully deployed and systems operating normally, marking a sweeping success for the landmark collaboration in China-Europe space science.

SMILE marks China's first mission-level project with the ESA in space science exploration.

The satellite will use soft X-ray imaging technology to provide a global view of the large-scale structure of Earth's magnetosphere for the first time.

The mission is expected to deliver a series of scientific breakthroughs in areas including space weather forecasting and the fundamental understanding of magnetospheric physics. ■