Which robot was the first to land on an asteroid?

NEAR Shoemaker was the first robot to land on an asteroid.

NASA’s Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft reached the asteroid 433 Eros in February 2000 and entered orbit around it. On 12 February 2001, after completing its planned orbital mission, the spacecraft descended to the surface and survived the landing. It was renamed NEAR Shoemaker to honor planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker.

The landing was not part of the original primary mission design, so mission controllers treated it as an ambitious bonus operation. After touchdown, the spacecraft transmitted data from the surface, including measurements from its gamma-ray spectrometer and magnetometer.

NEAR Shoemaker is sometimes confused with Hayabusa, which later returned asteroid samples to Earth, or Rosetta, which landed the Philae probe on a comet. NEAR Shoemaker did not return samples; its historic achievement was reaching and operating on an asteroid’s surface.