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.
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Identity
- Aliases
- NEARNear Earth Asteroid RendezvousNear Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker
- Name
- NEAR Shoemaker
- Slug
- 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.
- 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.
- Program
- Discovery Program
- 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
- July 18, 2026 at 15:28:55 UTC
Other
- Affiliations
- Space Stations
- -
- Vehicles