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NEAR Shoemaker at Eros
Volume 23, Number 1 (January–March 2002)

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission was developed and operated for NASA by APL. It was the first mission in the agency’s Discovery Program of low-cost planetary missions. NEAR (later known as NEAR Shoemaker) was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on 17 February 1996. Delta-2 rocket #232 provided the near-perfect launch that sent the spacecraft on its way toward a rendezvous with asteroid 433 Eros. NEAR Shoemaker landed on the surface of Eros on 12 February 2001. (Rendering of NEAR spacecraft on Eros, © Don Davis, also appeared on the cover of The Planetary Report, Sep–Oct 2001; cover design by Kenneth R. Moscati.)

NEAR Shoemaker at Eros: Mission Director’s Introduction R. W. Farquhar

Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous: The Science of Discovery D. L. Domingue and A. F. Cheng

NEAR Mission Design D. W. Dunham, J. V. McAdams,and R. W. Farquhar

Technical Challenges and Results for Navigation of NEAR Shoemaker B. G. Williams

Making NEAR Work: Cooperative Modeling and Simulation with an Advanced Guidance and Control System G. A. Heyler and A. P. Harch

NEAR Shoemaker Spacecraft Mission Operations M. E. Holdridge

NEAR Spacecraft Flight System Performance A. G. Santo

MISCELLANEA APL Awards L. L. Maier-Tyler

John R. Apel: Obituary D. J. Williams and R. F. Gasparovic

John R. Apel: An Appreciation K. Moorjani

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