Spacecraft becomes first to land on an asteroid

The first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid drifting out beyond Mars last night became the first to land on one.

The Near Shoemaker satellite was sent into a slow-motion crash-landing on Asteroid 433, better known as Eros. It was even continuing to send out signals last night.

The satellite hit the surface of the sausage-shaped asteroid at 8.07 p.m. Irish time after a long, slow descent. "I am happy to report that the Near spacecraft has touched down on the surface of Eros," said mission controller Dr Robert Farquhar. "This is the first time that any spacecraft has landed on a small body."

It was a remarkable end to a remarkable flight for the satellite, which was launched on February 17th, 1996. The romantic folks who sent the thing up, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, managed to work St Valentine's Day into the agenda repeatedly.

They christened the asteroid Eros for the Greek god of love and dropped it into orbit around the asteroid a year ago on the great day of love, February 14th.

Now, almost a year later, the spacecraft's mission was brought to an end by being dropped on to Eros at about six miles an hour. It was never meant to be a landing satellite, but so successful was the mission that NASA decided to end with a flourish and let it go out with a bang.

During its year-long visit to Eros, the spacecraft took 160,000 pictures and beamed them back to Earth. Scientists wanted a craft to visit an asteroid because an asteroid was thought to have hit Earth 67 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs.

Eros floats nearly 200 million miles away and is, in effect, a 21-mile long, eight-mile wide chunk of rock, a leftover from the creation of the solar system. It is a giant compared to most other nearby asteroids but it orbits the Sun along a path out beyond Mars that over time can be moved much closer to Earth.

The scientists at NASA wanted to know what they were up against should Eros or one of its relatives decide to come calling.

"Although we are far from being technologically ready to blow one out of the way if it comes too close, forewarned is forearmed and we have an idea of what we are up against if that ever happens," said Dr Louise Prockter, a scientist working on the Near mission.

Although Near cost $224 million to build and fly, it was considered by NASA as one of its "faster, better, cheaper" missions because of its comparatively low cost.