An Ariane V blasts off 02 March 2004 from Kourou, French Guiana. A billion-euro (1.25-billion-dollar) European spacecraft today began a decade-long quest to hunt a comet in the depths of the Solar System and shadow it around the Sun in a bid to tease out secrets of how life began on Earth. The three-tonne probe Rosetta powered into space at 0717 GMT atop an Ariane 5 from the European Space Agency’s pad in Kourou, French Guiana, ending a 13-month delay and two launch postponements. AFP PHOTO EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY