1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories
NEAR Shoemaker
First spacecraft to orbit and land on an asteroid.
Era 3 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- year known only: 1996
- Lead / partner
- United States
- Target
- Asteroid Eros
- Category
- Asteroid orbiter / lander
- Status
- Success
- Vehicle
- Delta II 7925-8
- Mass
- 805 kg
- Orbit / trajectory
- unknown
- Duration
- 5 years, 21 days
Why it happened
NEAR Shoemaker flew during 1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories, as part of United States's work toward asteroid eros. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: First spacecraft to orbit and land on an asteroid.
Results
First spacecraft to orbit and land on an asteroid.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · license: public-domain (source, checked 2026-08-24)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
