The NEAR mission, launched on 2/17/96, met its end yesterday when it landed successfully on Eros. The spacecraft spent the last year orbiting, photographing, and analyzing the asteroid. When it completed its primary objective, it was decided to try and land the spacecraft on the asteroid. NEAR, designed to be an orbiter not a lander, landed at a smooth 4 mph. The Amptek XR-100 X-Ray Detector, employed as the X-Ray Solar Monitor, provided the XGRS instrument on-board NEAR with a high-resolution incident solar x-ray spectrum. This is the second XR-100 to land on an extraterrestrial body (the other now resting on the surface of Mars).
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