NEAR image of the day for 2001 Feb 09

This 6-scene animated sequence shows the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft as it probably looked when it descended from orbit above Eros to the surface of the asteroid on Feb. 12, 2001. Hydrazine engine bursts slowed the spacecraft into a gentle descent.

NEAR Shoemaker de-orbited with an engine burn at 10:31 a.m. EST, about 4½ hours before it reached the surface. The final leg of the controlled descent began with the spacecraft about 5 kilometers (3 miles) above the surface; it then executed an unprecedented series of four engine burns that slowed its descent from about 20 mph to under 4 mph. NEAR Shoemaker landed in an area just outside Himeros, the asteroid's distinctive saddle-shaped depression, after providing the highest-resolution images ever taken of Eros' boulder-strewn, cratered terrain. Though it was never designed to land, NEAR Shoemaker survived the touchdown and continued to transmit data from the surface.