Berlin ? A European spacecraft left Earth orbit Wednesday on a five-month, 220 million-mile journey to Venus, an exploratory mission that could help spur a new space race.

The European Space Agency said the unmanned Venus Express lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and mission control in Darmstadt activated the probe’s instruments and immediately picked up a signal to hearty applause in the observation room.

The $260 million spacecraft will take 163 days to get to Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, where it will drop into orbit and explore the hot, dense atmosphere of Venus.