Smile undergoes magnetic testing

In August 2025, engineers put the Smile spacecraft through ‘magnetic testing’.

It is important to make sure that the magnetic field measurements picked up by Smile’s magnetometer instrument (called ‘MAG’) accurately gather data on the strength and direction of magnetic fields around the spacecraft to help us understand how the solar wind affects Earth’s magnetosphere.

The recent magnetic tests made sure that these space measurements will not be contaminated by electronic equipment onboard the spacecraft, which generate small magnetic fields themselves.

Read more about the final stages of the Smile test campaign

Smile (the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

[Image description: A large cleanroom with high white walls and bright lighting. In the foreground, several tall thin poles with cables are arranged on a platform. In the background, a spacecraft wrapped in shiny silver and gold foil sits on a support structure near a large grey closed door. Technical equipment and workstations line the sides of the room.]