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The NEAR Mission Contents: Summary • Management • Partnerships • Timeline
- Summary
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission is the first launch in the Discovery Program, a NASA initiative for small planetary missions, with a maximum 3-year development cycle and a cost capped at $150 million in FY 1992 dollars. The NEAR mission is managed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, MD.
As the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, the NEAR mission promises to answer fundamental questions about the nature and origin of near-Earth objects, such as the numerous asteroids and comets in the vicinity of Earth's orbit.
- NEAR Management:
NASA: Assoc. Admin. Office of Space Science Edward Weiler Director, Mission & Payload Development Div. OSS Kenneth Ledbetter Program Executive Anthony Carro Program Scientist Thomas Morgan APL: Space Department Head Stamatios Krimigis Program Manager Tom Coughlin Program Scientist Andrew Cheng Mission Manager Robert Farquhar Mission Design Team Leader David Dunham Mission Operations Manager Mark Holdridge Spacecraft Team Leader Andrew Santo Payload Manager Robert Gold Science Data Center Manager Douglas Holland JPL: Navigation Team Leader Bobby Williams Deep Space Network Team Leader Al Berman - See NASA-APL Organization Chart
- NEAR Partnerships:
- To meet Discovery's challenge, JHU APL collaborates with many industries,
small businesses, and universities around the world. See Partnerships Table.
- More Mission Information:
Mission Timeline 17 Feb 1996 to 14 Feb 2001
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