Onboard autonomy placed NEAR in Earth Safe Mode as a result of the auto momentum dump. All instruments were turned off by autonomy as a precautionary measure.

The Eros Rendezvous maneuver planned for February 2 at 17:00 UTC was postponed until the following day. No significant amount of fuel was consumed.

NEAR was recovered to operational mode on February 2 and data critical to investigate the accelerometer setup related anomaly was downlinked.

In parallel with the data recovery exercise on February 2, Mission Operations, Mission Design, Navigation, and Guidance & Control teams worked closely together to redesign the rendezvous maneuver, implement a work around to the accelerometer anomaly (leave them on), fully test the new sequence, and conduct round table reviews of it.

Afterwards, the modified rendezvous maneuver sequence (referred to as TCM 22) was uploaded to the spacecraft during the evening of February 2 and enabled. TCM 22 was executed on February 3 at 17:00 UTC.

Coarse indications are the rendezvous maneuver was very successful. It will take several days of tracking and data analysis to get a precise measurement of the maneuver's affect.

Regular Eros OpNav images were taken this week.

NEAR is presently: 7433 km (4619 miles) from Eros (corrected for one-day delay in rendezvous maneuver).

Science activities conducted this week include:

• Eros Satellite seat B on 1/28/2000
• MSI/NIS Light Curve 4 on 1/29/2000
• NIS Mirror Plane Test on 1/31/2000
• MSI Support Images on 1/31/2000
• NIS Mirror Geometry Test on 2/1/2000
• MSI Support Images on 2/1/2000

Upcoming Spacecraft Activities:

In addition to regular DSN tracking and taking of OpNav images, the following are operationally significant activities planned through Eros orbit insertion. Please consult the NEAR Flight Timeline for more details regarding upcoming science activities.

• Feb 4   Navigation Eros Landmark Movie
• Feb 8   Rendezvous Maneuver and Momentum Bias (22:00:00 UTC)
• Feb 9   Eros Satellite Search D
• Feb 14  Eros Orbit Insertion

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