This image of the Earth's South Pole and part of South America was taken at a distance of about 640km by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft. The photograph demonstrates the craft's charged-coupled device imager, which was used when the vehicle was flying past the planet at a speed of about 32,000km/h on 22 January. The NEAR Discovery-mission-series spacecraft was launched in February 1996. Its gravity-assist Earth fly-by sent it on a trajectory to orbit the asteroid 433 Eros on 10 January, 1999, coming as close as 16km from its surface during a one-year mission. The NEAR craft is also equiped with X-ray and infra-red spectrometers, a magnetometer and a laser altimeter.
Source: Flight International
