The primary goal of the mission was to study the near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros from orbit for approximately one year.
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The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year.
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NEAR spent most of the cruise phase in a minimal activity "hibernation" state, which ended a few days before the flyby of the 61 km diameter asteroid 253 Mathilde.
Bill Shoemaker | Eugene Merle Shoemaker | Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 | Tyler Shoemaker | Trina Shoemaker | The Elves and the Shoemaker | Pamela Shoemaker | NEAR Shoemaker | Jenna Shoemaker | Jarrod Shoemaker | Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 | Capt. Jacob Shoemaker House | 1920 Michigan men's basketball team
Back row (left to right): Clayton Shoemaker (manager), Jack Williams, E. J. Mather |
NEAR Shoemaker — US — asteroid 433 Eros orbiter, which later landed on the asteroid's surface, launched 1996