(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 19 mag - The Italian space propulsion company Avio said it successfully launched the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) scientific satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA) and Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

The satellite was launched with a Vega C launcher.

According to Avio, the satellite was delivered to a circular low Earth orbit, at an altitude of approximately 700 kilometers, for a mission to a high inclination and high elliptical orbit with a perigee of 5,000 kilometers and an apogee of 121,000 kilometer. The flight lasted 57 minutes from lift-off to separation of the satellite.

SMILE will measure the solar wind and its dynamic.

interactions with the Earth's magnetosphere.

(RADIOCOR) 19-05-26 09:04:40 (0212) 5 NNNN