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Deep Space Maneuver Retarget NEAR For Asteroid 433 Eros Encounter

Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory

For more information contact:

Helen Worth
JHU/APL Office of Public Affairs
Phone: (301) 953-5113
e-mail: Helen.Worth@jhuapl.edu
fax: (301) 953-6123

Donald Savage
NASA Headquarters Office of Space Science
Phone: (202) 358-1547
e-mail: dsavage@hq.nasa.gov
fax: (202) 358-3093.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 3 July 1997

Deep Space Maneuver Retarget NEAR for Asteroid 433 Eros Encounter

The trajectory for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft was
adjusted at 6:30 a.m. EDT, today, to target the spacecraft for an Earth
swingby in 1998. An 11-minute firing of its bi-propellant engine slowed NEAR
down by 269 meters per second (602 mph) to a current speed of about 18,244
meters per second (41,000 mph) and nudged the spacecraft about half a degree
from its previous path. This maneuver puts NEAR on track for a close Earth
flyby on Jan. 23, 1998, which will bend the spacecraft's trajectory into the
orbital plane of asteroid 433 Eros.

"Everything went beautifully and we are now on target for a rendezvous with
Eros in January 1999," says NEAR Mission Director Dr. Robert W. Farquhar of
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md.,
where NEAR was designed and built. Spacecraft Systems Engineer Andrew G.
Santo, also of the Applied Physics Laboratory, says, "The burn was performed
so accurately that fuel that had been allocated for further correction can
now be used during the orbital phase."

Today's maneuver was the first time the large thruster engine was fired. The
next scheduled firing of the engine, Dec. 20, 1998, will mark the beginning
of the Eros rendezvous sequence.

The flawless deep space maneuver continued the success story of the NEAR
mission that began with its Feb. 17, 1996 launch from Cape Canaveral Air
Station in Florida. On June 27, 1997, the spacecraft completed a flyby of
asteroid 253 Mathilde, sending back spectacular images of a dark, battered
carbon-rich rock believed to date from the beginning of the solar system.
The flyby was the closest look at any asteroid to date and the first
encounter with a C-type (carbon-based) asteroid. The Mathilde images were
the first science return of NASA's Discovery Program. A radio science
experiment measured for the first time the mass of an asteroid.

The NEAR mission, which will end Feb. 6, 2000, after a year-long study of
Eros, will provide the first comprehensive study of a near-Earth asteroid.
The mission has been managed by APL, where the Mission Operation and 
the Science Data centers are located.

Mathilde flyby updates can be obtained on the Mathilde homepage at:
http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/Mathilde. Photographs of the first Mathilde
images, the NEAR spacecraft, and the NEAR launch are available upon
request.