London - After a near-flawless rocket firing, a robot craft yesterday became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, settling into a Valentine's Day rendezvous with a space rock named Eros, after the Greek god of love.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft automatically fired for 57 seconds and then signalled success to Earth. The NEAR rocket thrusters fired at 3.33 p.m. Irish time but it took more than 20 minutes for engineers at Mission Control in Maryland to confirm the rocket firing.