Which spacecraft became the first to land on an asteroid, touching down on Eros in 2001?

NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid when it touched down on Eros in 2001.

NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, later renamed NEAR Shoemaker, entered orbit around the asteroid 433 Eros in February 2000. It studied Eros's shape, geology, composition, mass, and magnetic properties for about a year. On 12 February 2001, mission controllers guided the spacecraft down to the asteroid's surface.

NEAR was not originally designed as a lander. Its controlled descent was an extended mission made possible by the spacecraft's low approach speed and remaining fuel. After landing, it continued transmitting data from the surface for about two weeks, even though its instruments had been built mainly for orbital observations.

The achievement is distinct from later asteroid sample-return missions. Japan's Hayabusa returned particles from the asteroid Itokawa, while NASA's OSIRIS-REx collected material from Bennu. Those missions are famous for sampling, but NEAR Shoemaker holds the earlier record for the first landing on an asteroid.