space-weather

The joint ESA-Chinese Academy of Sciences SMILE spacecraft reached French Guiana after a two-week ocean voyage and is preparing for an April launch on a Vega-C rocket. It will be the first mission to image Earth's magnetosphere in soft X-rays.

The 1,300-pound radiation belt spacecraft burned up over the eastern Pacific Ocean on March 11, ending a 14-year journey that began with a two-year mission and yielded the discovery of a transient third radiation belt around Earth.