Space probes have touched down on Venus, Mars and the moon—but none has ever attempted to land on a tiny rock hurtling through space. That changed last week, when scientists guided the NEAR Shoemaker craft to a gentle landing atop the potato-shaped asteroid Eros. The victory was especially sweet because NEAR was never designed to land—it had already completed its mission by orbiting Eros for a year. Scientists decided to give it a shot anyway. They used five engine burns to slow NEAR's dive, steering the craft to a landing at about four miles per hour.
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