The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft (NEAR-Shoemaker) dropped to within 5.3km - the closest approach ever to an asteroid - of Eros on 26 October, travelling at 22km/h (14mph) over the surface and taking images before returning to a 200km orbit. Images showed a large boulder measuring 15m (49ft) across.
On 12 February 2001, the mission will end with an attempt to lower the orbit again so that the spacecraft will make a controlled descent or landing, returning images from the surface.
Source: Flight International