The SMART-1 orbiter of the European Space Agency, a probe launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket in September 2003, on Sunday crashed into the moon's surface.

SMART-1, Europe's first spacecraft which had been circling the moon since November 2004, ended its three-year voyage at 0542 GMT on Sunday by crashing into moon's surface near the Lake of Excellence, an area of volcanic origin in the mid-southern latitudes.

The spacecraft hit the moon's surface at 2 kilometers per second, or 7,200 kilometers per hour, and would leave a 3-meter-by-10-meter crater, according to mission controllers in Germany's Darmstadt.

The crash also sent a cloud of dust and debris kilometers above the lunar surface, and would provide clues to the geologic composition of the site, scientists' said.

"It was a great mission and a great success, and now it's over," said mission manager Gerhard Schwehm in the mission control room.

SMART-1 is the first in an intended series of European missions to test innovative ideas in space engineering. The name is an acronym for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology.

The probe, which cost the European Space Agency 110 million euros (140 million U.S. dollars), was launched into Earth orbit using an Ariane-5 booster rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guinea, on Sept. 27, 2003.

It took more than 14 months for the orbiter to slowly raise its orbit by using its ion engine before the moon's gravity grabbed it.

On Saturday, mission controllers had to raise the spacecraft's orbit by 2,000 feet to avoid hitting a crater rim on final approach, which scientists said could make the impact hard or impossible to observe.

The probe's instruments have gathered information that could increase scientists' understanding of how the moon's surface evolved and help test a theory that the moon originated when another astronomical body slammed into the Earth. It sent back last close-up images even minutes before Sunday's crash.

 
Editor: Yan