Europe's spacecraft hits the moon

Image provided by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp shows the impact of Europe's first spacecraft to the moon. Europe's first spacecraft to the moon ended its three-year mission Sunday by crashing into the lunar surface in a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence, to a round of applause in the mission control room in Germany.

Hitting at 2 kilometers per second(!!!) , the impact of the SMART-1 spacecraft was expected to leave a 3-meter-by-10-meter crater and send dust kilometers above the surface.

Launched into Earth's orbit by an Ariane-5 booster rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, in September 2003, SMART-1 used its ion engine to slowly raise its orbit over 14 months until the moon's gravity grabbed it.

SMART-1, a cube measuring roughly a meter on each side, took the long way to the moon -- more than 100 million kilometers instead of the direct route of 350,000 to 400,000 kilometers.

But the European Space Agency did it for a relatively cheap €110 million ($140 million).

The spacecraft has also been taking high-resolution pictures of the surface with a miniaturized camera.

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