September 29, 2003	Monday	Sha’aban 2, 1424

KOUROU (French Guiana) Sept 28: Europe’s first mission to the moon has blasted off aboard a European Ariane rocket, space officials said.

The Ariane-5 rocket carrying the SMART-1 Moon exploration probe and two commercial satellites blasted off at 8.14 p.m. on Saturday from the European Space Agency (ESA) launch centre at Kourou in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. Forty-one minutes after launch, the rocket released SMART-1 into space to begin a 15-month journey to reach lunar orbit. —Reuters