The landing of the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft on asteroid 433 Eros

The NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft was designed to provide a comprehensive chara cterization of the S-type asteroid 433 Eros (refs 1-3), an irregularly shap ed body with approximate dimensions of 34x13x13 km. Following the completio n of its yearlong investigation, the mission was terminated with a controll ed descent to its surface, in order to provide extremely high resolution im ages. Here we report the results of the descent on 12 February 2001, during which 70 images were obtained. The landing area is marked by a paucity of small craters and an abundance of 'ejecta blocks'. The properties and distr ibution of ejecta blocks are discussed in a companion paper(4). The last se quence of images reveals a transition from the blocky surface to a smooth a rea, which we interpret as a 'pond'. Properties of the 'ponds' are discusse d in a second companion paper(5). The closest image, from an altitude of 12 9 m, shows the interior of a 100-m-diameter crater at 1-cm resolution.