SMART-1 stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology.
SMART-1's elliptical - egg-shaped - orbit will range from 10,000 to 300 km (6,200 to 190 miles) above the lunar surface.
Nine European countries and the United States are contributing to the SMART-1 mission.
SMART-1 was a secondary payload aboard an Ariane-5 launched from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
It was Europe's first mission to the Moon.
The mission was the second to use ion propulsion as a primary propulsion system. The first was NASA's Deep Space 1 probe launched in October 1998.