Smile team sees land after two weeks at sea

Following a two-week journey from the Netherlands, the Maritime Nantaise Colibri cargo ship carrying the Smile spacecraft docked in Kourou, French Guiana on Thursday 26 February.

Smile was then unloaded, transported to Europe's Spaceport, and then unpacked. During the coming weeks, the spacecraft will go through final preparations for its launch on a Vega-C rocket between 8 April and 7 May.

Find out more

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

[Image description: A close-up view of a ship, where the ship covers about two-thirds of the frame and we do not see the whole ship. The main body of the ship is blue, with ‘MN Colibri, Marseille’ printed on the side. On the deck of the ship are about ten people, all looking over the railings towards the camera. Half of the people are wearing orange jumpsuits and white protective helmets – these look like ship crew. The other people are wearing standard day clothes and no helmets – these are the representatives of ESA and CAS who accompanied the ship.]