NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft
NEAR Shoemaker was the Johns Hopkins APL spacecraft developed for NASA's first Discovery Program mission. The compact solar-powered probe combined asteroid flyby and orbital-survey capabilities, then demonstrated an unplanned landed phase after a controlled descent to Eros.
Follow this vehicle family
Future launches and major activity directly linked to this vehicle family.
Identity
- Aliases
- NEAR spacecraftNear Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft
- Family Name
- NEAR
- Full Name
- NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft
- Roles
- interplanetary_probeflybyorbiterlander
- Status
- retired
- Type
- spacecraft
Details
- Description
- NEAR Shoemaker was the Johns Hopkins APL spacecraft developed for NASA's first Discovery Program mission. The compact solar-powered probe combined asteroid flyby and orbital-survey capabilities, then demonstrated an unplanned landed phase after a controlled descent to Eros.
- First Flight Year
- 1,996
- Last Flight Year
- 2,001
- Manufacturer
- Operator
- Propulsion Configurations
- Entries
- Count
- 1
- Propulsion System
- Role
- maneuvering
- Stage
- spacecraft
- Variant Notes
- One integrated dual-mode propulsion subsystem: a 450 N hydrazine and nitrogen-tetroxide bipropellant thruster for large maneuvers with four 21 N and seven 3.5 N hydrazine thrusters for fine velocity control, momentum dumping, and attitude control.
- Name
- NEAR Shoemaker dual-mode chemical propulsion installation
- Notes
- NASA Planetary Data System describes NEAR as a dual-mode hydrazine propulsion subsystem with one 450 N bipropellant thruster for large maneuvers, four 21 N thrusters, and seven 3.5 N thrusters for fine velocity control and momentum dumping. The thruster complement also supported spacecraft attitude control.
- Spacecraft Specs
- Launch Mass Kg
- 805
- Reusability
- expendable
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 29, 2026 at 09:46:25 UTC
- Updated Time
- September 8, 2026 at 09:23:55 UTC