For almost 50 years Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts were the only ones in space. Due to the costs involved, no other country launched their own man or ship into space. Technology evolved, however, and what once was an enormous undertaking began to fall in cost to the level where it came feasible for other nations to try. China joined the exclusive club of countries who sent men into space in 2005, but by two years they were not the first, other than Russia and America, to launch a ship.

On this day, September 27, in 2003, the SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology) satellite launched, on its way to orbit the moon. The Swedish-designed ship was commissioned by the European Space Agency and became the first European ship in space.

Using many of the same tools, like the ion propulsion system and miniaturized solar array, that the American Deep Space 1 proved workable, the SMART-1 orbited the moon for three years, taking measurements of its mineral composition to see whether it came about a result of a collision between Earth and another earth-sized object. Its camera was also able to map out the moon’s surface in greater detail than was possible before.