NEAR-Shoemaker Successfully Lands on asteroid EROS

Flash! Archive
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000

NEAR-Shoemaker Successfully Lands on asteroid EROS

More Information:

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker spacecraft successfully touched down on asteroid (433) Eros at 2005 UTC (12:05 p.m. PST) on February 12. Before landing on the asteroid, the spacecraft transmitted very high resolution pictures of the asteroid. The spacecraft snapped dozens of pictures in its final hour, the closest only several hundred meters (yards) away. Calculations made after the landing show the spacecraft impacted the surface at a speed of 1.5 to 1.8 m/sec (about 3 1/2 mph). There is still a signal, although relatively weak.

The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft, was built and operated for NASA by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. The spacecraft was launched as NEAR on Feb. 17, 1996. The spacecraft made successful flybys of asteroid (243) Mathilde on June 27, 1997 and asteroid (433) Eros on December 23, 1998. The spacecraft returned to asteroid Eros and on February 14, 2000 the spacecraft went into orbit around Eros. Beginning with an orbit of about 320 x 366 km above Eros, a series of maneuvers put the spacecraft in lower and lower orbits and during the summer of 2000, the spacecraft spent several weeks in a near circular orbit of only 35 km from the center of Eros. As a tribute to Gene Shoemaker NASA renamed the NEAR spacecraft on March 14, 2000 to NEAR Shoemaker.

The projected total mission cost is US$224.1 million, including US$124.9 million for spacecraft development, US$44.6 million for launch support and tracking, and US$54.6 million for mission operations and data analysis.

Johns Hopkins returned about US$3 million to NASA.

SPACEandTECH Digest is a weekly roundup of the latest industry news of interest to the space professional. SPACEandTECH Flash! is an internet push service offered by Andrews Space & Technology to bring the latest on orders, launches, and important breaking news to your desktop. SPACEandTECH Digest and SPACEandTECH Flash! are part of the Andrews Space & Technology www.spaceandtech.com website, a website designed to serve the information needs of the space industry.

If you would like to subscribe to the SPACEandTECH Flash! (currently a free service), contact the www.spaceandtech.com Editor-in-Chief, Joe Hopkins, at editor@spaceandtech.com

February 12, 2001