[meteorite-list] Closer Orbit Ahead for NEAR Shoemaker

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:37:32 2004
Message-ID: <200012071901.LAA05159_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://near.jhuapl.edu/news/flash/00dec07_1.html

          Closer Orbit Ahead for NEAR Shoemaker
          December 7, 2000

          NEAR Shoemaker's global mapping mission - and last
          long-distance orbit around Eros - ended Dec. 7 with an
          engine burst that moved the spacecraft several miles
          closer to the rotating asteroid.

          The two-minute maneuver, monitored simultaneously by the
          NEAR mission operations and navigation teams at the
          Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland and the Jet
          Propulsion Laboratory in California, pushed NEAR
          Shoemaker from a 124-mile (200-kilometer) vantage point
          into position to start a circular, 22-mile
          (35-kilometer) orbit on Dec. 13. The spacecraft will
          stay at that lower orbit - designed mostly for
          X-Ray/Gamma-Ray Spectrometer measurements of the
          asteroid's surface elements - through December and most
          of January 2001.

          NEAR Shoemaker is currently 171 million miles (273
          million kilometers) from Earth, conducting the first
          close-up study of an asteroid. Its yearlong orbit of
          Eros wraps up in February 2001.
Received on Thu 07 Dec 2000 02:01:38 PM PST