Planetary science

NEAR Shoemaker

Completed

Image: NASA · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Launched: 17 Feb 199620:43:27 UTC
Last contact: 28 Feb 2001
Duration: 5 years
Destinations: Eros, Mathilde

The first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and the first to land on one, settling onto Eros in 2001 after a year in orbit around it. On the way it flew past the asteroid Mathilde.

Milestones

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19971998199920002001

Spacecraft

NEAR Shoemaker

Orbiter

Completed

Solar-powered orbiter with six instruments. It was not designed to land, yet kept working on the surface for two weeks.

Launch mass: 805 kg
Dry mass: 468 kg
Size: 2.8 m × 1.5 m
Power: Solar
Built by: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Last contact: 28 Feb 2001
Designator: 1996-008A

Mission details from science.nasa.gov.