After mere months in orbit around asteroid Eros, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft is astounding scientists with ever more detailed views of geologic features and scientific accomplishments.

NEAR team members have found evidence of geologic phenomena that could have originated on a much larger parent body from which Eros was derived. In their search to decipher the mysteries of Eros, they have obtained the first ever laser range returns from an asteroid and the first ever x-ray detection of an asteroid. High-resolution images are surprising scientists by the abundance of ridges, chains of craters, and boulders.

NEAR-Shoemaker, as the probe has been renamed, was launched on Feb 17, 1996, by a Delta-2 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station. This was the smallest rocket ever used for a planetary mission. About the size of a car, NEAR is made of eight 18-square-foot aluminum panels and is 9 feet, 2 inches long including its main antenna.  NEAR’s four solar panels - each 6 ‘ long and 4’ wide - surround the 5-foot diameter high-gain antenna on top of the spacecraft. Including propellant and instruments, NEAR weighed 1,775 pounds at liftoff.

The NEAR mission aims to answer fundamental questions about the nature and origin of the many asteroids and comets close to Earth's orbit. These "near Earth" objects may contain clues about the formation of the Earth and other planets. Eros' pristine surface offers a look at conditions in space when Earth was formed more than 4.5 billion years ago.

Originally, NEAR was supposed to reach Eros two years and 327 days after launch, but the first orbital insertion attempt on Dec. 20, 1998 failed. This forced mission designers to add another year and 23 days to the trip.

The projected total mission cost is $224.1 million. NEAR-Shoemaker was the first launch in NASA's Discovery Program.