NEAR Shoemaker

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

NEAR Shoemaker was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, and the first to land on one. Built as the inaugural mission of NASA's low-cost Discovery programme, it launched on 17 February 1996 and was later renamed for the geologist Eugene Shoemaker, a pioneer of impact science. On the way to its target it flew past the large, dark asteroid Mathilde in 1997, catching the first close look at a carbon-rich body. Its destination was Eros, a 34-kilometre, peanut-shaped near-Earth asteroid. After an aborted first attempt and a year's delay, NEAR slipped into orbit around Eros on 14 February 2000 — the first time any spacecraft had orbited an asteroid. For a year it circled close, mapping the cratered, boulder-strewn surface, measuring the asteroid's mass and composition, and showing it to be a primitive, undifferentiated relic rather than a fragment of a larger world. Then, although it had never been designed to land, controllers gently brought it down. On 12 February 2001 NEAR Shoemaker settled onto the surface of Eros, becoming the first craft to touch an asteroid, and kept transmitting from the ground for over two weeks before the mission ended.

1. 1996Launch toward ErosLaunch

   The first NASA Discovery-programme mission sets out for a near-Earth asteroid.

2. 1997Asteroid Mathilde flybyFlyby

   Returns the first close look at a large, dark, carbon-rich asteroid.

3. 2000Orbits ErosOrbiter

   The first spacecraft ever to orbit an asteroid, mapping Eros for a year.

4. 2001Lands on ErosLanding

   Though never designed to land, it gently touches down — the first craft on an asteroid.

5. 2001Last signal from the surfaceMission end

   Keeps transmitting from Eros for over two weeks before the mission ends.

Images

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