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NEAR Shoemaker

NEAR Shoemaker was NASA's first Discovery Program mission and the first spacecraft dedicated to a close, sustained investigation of a near-Earth asteroid. Built and operated by Johns Hopkins APL, it surveyed asteroid 253 Mathilde en route before entering orbit around 433 Eros and examining the asteroid's shape, composition, structure, gravity, and surface geology.

NEAR Shoemaker
NASA · Exact subject/source match to NASA/JPL PIA18177: NASA/JPL original 4396x3335, stored asset 1280x970 derivative; bilinear resize comparison MAE 3.09, RMSE 4.73, Pearson correlation 0.99765. Stored asset SHA-256 17375dee9a0927dcee8d84d4d57f5b7b88f059d9228c40d56dc00b0d3000b1c4. NASA Science and JPL identify this as an artist’s concept of the NEAR spacecraft at asteroid Eros and credit NASA. JPL’s current image policy permits public-site images for any purpose unless otherwise noted, with credit and no NASA/JPL/Caltech endorsement; logos, identifiable persons, and third-party material remain subject to the policy. This statement does not imply endorsement. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
NEARNear Earth Asteroid RendezvousNear Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker
Name
NEAR Shoemaker
Status
completed

Details

Astronauts
-
Description
NEAR Shoemaker was NASA's first Discovery Program mission and the first spacecraft dedicated to a close, sustained investigation of a near-Earth asteroid. Built and operated by Johns Hopkins APL, it surveyed asteroid 253 Mathilde en route before entering orbit around 433 Eros and examining the asteroid's shape, composition, structure, gravity, and surface geology.
Destination
Heliocentric trajectory to asteroids 253 Mathilde and 433 Eros, where NEAR Shoemaker entered orbit around Eros and ended as the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid
End Date
2001-02-28
Launch Site
Outcome
NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid on February 14, 2000 and the first to land on one on February 12, 2001. It returned about 160,000 images and roughly ten times its planned data volume, survived its unplanned role as a surface station, and transmitted from Eros until extreme cold ended communications.
Programs
Start Date
1996-02-17
Vehicle Families

Links

Official Url
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/near-shoemaker/

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 18, 2026 at 15:28:55 UTC
Updated Time
August 22, 2026 at 15:17:07 UTC
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Affiliations
Search Name
NEAR Shoemaker NEAR Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker
Space Stations
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