On Monday, February 12, 2001 at 2:05 p.m., history was made when the NEAR spacecraft landed on the asteroid Eros. It’s the first time a manmade object landed on an asteroid.

An asteroid is a rock in space that orbits the sun. Asteroid Eros is 196 million miles from Earth. The landing completes a five-year, $223 million, 2-billion-mile mission for the robot craft. Last year, NEAR achieved orbit around Eros. This year, the mission was scheduled to end on the anniversary of the orbit. Scientists decided to try a landing on the surface of the asteroid. They would get some very close-up images of the surface, and could practice landing on an object with extremely light gravity. The practiced landing could help in the preparation of a mission to land on a comet, which NASA plans to attempt around 2010.

NEAR will be monitored longer than originally planned by NASA. The spacecraft wasn't designed for a landing, but survived the impact very well. Scientists will continue to collect data from NEAR. One of its instruments, a gamma ray spectrometer, can analyze the chemistry of the barren asteroid.