The European Space Agency launched SMART-1 in 2003 and was the first European spacecraft to go to the moonIt was also the first mission of a program called Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology, which was a series of low-cost spacecraft launched by the European Agency to test new spaceflight technologies.
According to Space, on September 3, 2006, a European satellite named SMART-1 crashed into the moon following its long flight, and this was not actually as disastrous as it seemed, because the spacecraft did so on purpose.
SMART-1’s primary goal was to test something called solar primary propulsion, or a solar-powered electric motor, and as it orbited the Moon for regarding two years, it searched for water ice and other chemicals on the lunar surface.
And when it hit the moon, it was also done for science’s sake, as astronomers back on Earth watched the impact through their telescopes, hoping that it would give them some insight into the mechanics of meteorite impacts.
