|
The Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
(NEAR) spacecraft was launched 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 then
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.
The NEAR Shoemaker
spacecraft, was built and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied
Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. As a tribute to Gene
Shoemaker NASA renamed the NEAR spacecraft on March 14,
2000. 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.
NEAR
- Shoemaker
Near
Earth
Asteroid
Rendezvous
|
|
SATELLITE
|
| Int'l Designation |
1996
008A
|
Landed
|
| Owner / Sponsor |
NASA
/ Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
|
| Mission |
Science
|
| Constellation /
Block |
Discovery
|
| Launch Mass |
806
kg (1775 lbm)
|
| Dimensions |
1.7
square-meters at the base
|
| Mission Orbit |
Earth
Escape
|
asteroid
EROS
|
| Design Life |
5
years
|
| Power |
Solar
powered 1800 W @ 1 AU
|
|
LAUNCH
|
| Launch Vehicle
Model |
Delta
II 7925-8 |
| Date / Time (UTC) |
1996
Feb 17
|
20:43:27
|
|
LANDING
|
| Date / Time (UTC) |
2001
Feb 12
|
20:05
|
|
FINANCIAL
|
| Satellite cost |
US$224.1
million
|
| Web Links |
NEAR
Website
|
|
