Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous

• The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft was launched February 17, 1996.
• NEAR flew by C-asteroid 253 Mathilde on June 27, 1997.
• NEAR flew by S-asteroid 433 Eros on December 23, 1998.
• NEAR began orbiting S-asteroid 433 Eros on February 14, 2000.
• The NEAR mission ended with a landing on Eros on February 12, 2001.
  
  
• MSSS Connection: MSSS President, Michael C. Malin, was a member of the Multispectral Imaging/Near Infrared Spectroscopy Science Team for NEAR.

• Malin Space Science Systems' Planned NEAR Investigation

• Description of Mission and Instruments (1995)

• September 1994 Press Release: Science Team Selection

• NEAR Project Home Page at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

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