NASA’s NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid when it touched down on Eros on February 12, 2001.
NEAR stands for Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous. The spacecraft entered orbit around 433 Eros in February 2000 and spent about a year studying the asteroid’s shape, surface, composition, and geology. Although landing was not part of the original primary mission plan, controllers successfully guided the spacecraft to the surface after completing its orbital science.
The landing was gentle enough for NEAR Shoemaker to continue transmitting data from Eros. Its gamma-ray spectrometer provided measurements from the surface, extending the mission’s scientific return.
NEAR Shoemaker is distinct from missions that returned asteroid samples. Japan’s Hayabusa returned material from Itokawa, while NASA’s OSIRIS-REx returned samples from Bennu. NEAR’s achievement was the first controlled landing on an asteroid, not the first asteroid sample return.