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SMART-1


SMART-1 Update: The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft ended its mission just as planned with a intended crash into the Moon on Saturday, September 2 at 10:42 PM PDT (5:42 UT, September 3). SMART-1 had successfully completed its mission and spent its fuel, so a lunar impact was imminent. Scientists decided to use the spacecraft's final moments to see what they could learn about the lunar surface by observing the impact and analyzing any resulting debris.
SMART-1 Mission Goes Out With a Bang


SMART-1 is the first European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft to orbit around the Moon and, with China, India, Japan, and the United States planning launches to the Moon in coming decades, it is also the first in a flotilla of missions slated to visit our closest companion this century. The highly compact SMART-1 -- dubbed "a tiny test-bed of revolutionary technology" -- launched on September 27, 2003, aboard an Ariane-5 rocket from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and maneuvered into lunar orbit in mid-November 2004.

Designed to flight-test ion propulsion and other deep-space technologies, SMART-1 was the first spacecraft to use ion drive in conjunction with gravity-assist maneuvers, following on NASA's Deep Space 1, which was the first to use ion propulsion as the primary propulsion system. Even with the hugely successful Apollo missions during the 1960s and early 1970s that put men on the Moon, and the more recent Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions, our companion remains a place of mystery and intrigue. Scientifically, SMART-1's goals included observing the Moon with state-of-the-art miniaturized instruments, and investigating the theory that the Moon was formed following the violent collision of a smaller planet with Earth to present the first 21st-Century view of the Moon.

The ESA spacecraft completed its primary mission in July 2005 after returning the first comprehensive inventory of key chemical elements in the lunar surface, among other things, and continued with an extended mission through August 2006. The spacecraft ended its life by impacting the Moon's surface on September 3, 2006 (Universal Time).

SMART-1 Facts
Launch date: September 27, 2003
Arrival in orbit: November 15, 2004
Primary mission end: July 2005
Extended mission: July 2006
Lunar Impact: September 3, 2006