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On This Day In Space: Feb. 12, 2001: NEAR-Shoemaker lands on asteroid Eros

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On This Day In Space: Feb. 12, 2001: NEAR-Shoemaker lands on asteroid Eros_63ea357228fd2.jpeg

On Feb. 12, 2001, NASA landed a spacecraft on an asteroid! After a five-year mission, the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft touched down on the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros.

This was the first soft landing on an asteroid, and it was supposed to be the last thing NEAR-Shoemaker ever did. But NASA was surprised to find that the spacecraft was still intact and totally fine after hitting the asteroid.

 

The location of NEAR Shoemaker’s planned landing site is shown in this image mosaic taken on December 3, 2000, from an orbital altitude of 200 kilometers (124 miles). In this view, south is to the top and the terminator (the imaginary line dividing day from night) lies near the equator. The landing site (at the tip of the arrow) is near the boundary of two distinctly different provinces, both of which the spacecraft will photograph as it descends.  (Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL)

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Instead of ending the mission as planned, NASA spent a couple more weeks studying Eros from up close.

Throughout its mission, it studied things like the asteroid’s composition and magnetic field, but it also took the first close-up asteroid pictures ever taken by a spacecraft in orbit.

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