NEAR Shoemaker Program

NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, renamed NEAR Shoemaker, was the first mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. Launched on February 17, 1996, it flew by asteroid Mathilde, orbited asteroid Eros in 2000, and made the first spacecraft landing on an asteroid on February 12, 2001, returning data for about two weeks.

Identity

Aliases: NEARNEAR ShoemakerNear Earth Asteroid RendezvousNEAR Mission
Domains: spaceflight
Name: NEAR Shoemaker Program
Status: completed
Types: explorationscienceoperations

Details

Description: NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, renamed NEAR Shoemaker, was the first mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. Launched on February 17, 1996, it flew by asteroid Mathilde, orbited asteroid Eros in 2000, and made the first spacecraft landing on an asteroid on February 12, 2001, returning data for about two weeks.
End Date: 2001
Leads
Parent Program
Participants: -
Start Date: 1996

Assets & Meta

Creation Time: August 13, 2026 at 12:17:09 UTC
Updated Time: August 13, 2026 at 12:17:09 UTC

Other

Official Urls: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/near-shoemaker/https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/near.html