A European satellite blasted off on a mission to provide major new insights into how water is cycled around the Earth. The Smos (the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) spacecraft will make the first global maps of the amount of moisture held in soils and of the quantity of salts dissolved in the oceans. The data will have wide uses but should improve weather forecasts and warnings of extreme events, such as floods. A Russian Rokot launcher carrying Smos lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia at 0450 local time today. Some 70 minutes later, the upper-stage of the Rockot released the spacecraft, and telemetry confirming all was well with the mission was acquired by the Hartebeesthoek ground station, near Johannesburg, South Africa. The Smos satellite is part of an armada of European spacecraft being sent into orbit over the next few years to study the planet.<br/><br/>