The 27th of September 2003 the first European lunar orbiter, the Swedish built SMART-1, was launched with Ariane V rocket from the European space base in French Guyana. The main mission for SMART-1 is to test how a ionic drive can be used in deep space missions. During the first 13 months SMART-1 expanded its orbit until it was caught by the moons gravitational field and entered a polar orbit around the moon the 15th of November 2004. From this point the ionic drive was used to reduce the orbit. This will continue until it reaches the final operational height of 300 x 3000 km in the end of February 2005. The Swedish Space Corporation, which was the main contractor for the development of the space vehicle, now supports ESOC (European Space Operation Centre) during the operational phase of the project.
Peter Rathman, who was the project leader for SMART-1 at the Swedish Space Agency, will give the background to the SMART-1 project, talk about the orbiters journey to the moon and summarize the scientific mission which that has now been initiated.