NEAR MISSION OVERVIEW AND TRAJECTORY DESIGN

The Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission will be the first la unch in NASA's new series of low-cost planetary missions called the Di scovery Program. In February 1996, a Delta-2 rocket will place NEAR in to a two-year Delta VEGA trajectory that will eventually rendezvous wi th the large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros. The initial close pass at E ros (distance similar to 500 km) will occur on February 6, 1999. Later , as the spacecraft is maneuvered closer to Eros, NEAR will conduct sc ience operations from orbits as low as 35 x 35 km. On its way to Eros, NEAR will perform a flyby of the main-belt asteroid 253 Mathilde on J une 27, 1997. Among its many spaceflight ''firsts,'' NEAR will be the first spacecraft to orbit a small body.