NEAR Shoemaker Makes History by Landing on Asteroid Eros 433 25 Years Ago
Today marks a remarkable milestone in space exploration, as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft’s historic landing on the asteroid Eros 433. This event marked the first time in human history that a spacecraft successfully orbited and touched down on an asteroid. Eros, the second-largest known near-Earth object, was an ideal choice for this mission, allowing NEAR Shoemaker to orbit its 13 by 33-kilometer structure for a full year, from February 2000 to February 2001, before landing on its surface. To achieve this incredible feat, the spacecraft had to carefully track Eros’ heliocentric orbit around the









