Eurobird 3

This Ariane 5 carried Europe's first mission to the Moon, SMART-1, up as a secondary passenger alongside its commercial communications payloads. SMART-1 was chiefly a technology demonstrator for a solar-powered ion engine as a spacecraft's main propulsion, and that slow, fuel-sipping thruster shaped the mission: rather than a direct transfer, it spiralled outward from Earth orbit over thirteen months before the Moon finally captured it in late 2004.