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NASA · orbiter ended

NEAR Shoemaker

NEAR Shoemaker was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, Eros, and finished its mission with the first asteroid landing.

Launch
17 February 1996
End of mission
28 February 2001
Distance from Earth today
357.3 million km2.388 AU · light: 19 min 52 s
Distance from the Sun today
260.5 million km1.741 AU

The spacecraft is at Eros.

Trajectory

Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -93) every 2 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.

Mission timeline

  1. Launch on a Delta II from Cape Canaveral
  2. Flyby of asteroid Mathilde
  3. Earth gravity assist
  4. First spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, Eros
  5. First landing on an asteroid
  6. Last contact from the surface of Eros

Targets: Eros, Mathilde

About the mission

NEAR Shoemaker was the first mission of NASA's low-cost Discovery programme. On the way to its target it flew past the dark, heavily cratered asteroid Mathilde in 1997. A failed engine burn in December 1998 forced it to circle the Sun for another year before it finally entered orbit around the peanut-shaped asteroid Eros in February 2000. After a year of mapping, the team guided it down to the surface on 12 February 2001, even though it was never designed to land, and it kept sending data from Eros for about two more weeks.

Sources