Image provided by the Canda-France-Hawaii Telescope Corp shows the impact of Europe's first spacecraft to the moon.
Europe's spacecraft hits the moon
Europe's first spacecraft to the moon ended its three-year mission Sunday by crashing into the lunar surface in a volcanic plane called the Lake of Excellence, to a round of applause in the mission control room in Germany.
[Mission officials said they had to raise the low point of the spacecraft's orbit by 600 meters by using its positioning thrusters to avoid the 1.5 kilometer-high rim of a lunar crater. Had the orbit not been raised the craft would have crashed one orbit too soon, making the impact difficult or impossible to observe.]
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