PLEASE NOTE:
*
Date sent: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 08:33:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Benny J Peiser <B.J.PEISER@livjm.ac.uk>
Subject: Deep Space Maneuver Retarget NEAR For Asteroid 433 Eros
Encounter
To: cambridge-conference@livjm.ac.uk
Priority: NORMAL
from: Ron Baalke <BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov>
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.