On the 12 February 2001 at 20:02:10 GMT the NEAR ( Near Earth Asteroid Rendez-vous ) Shoemaker spacecraft traveled its last mile, cruising down to the surface of Asteroid Eros at a gentle 4 mph, finally coming to rest after its 2-million mile journey. These are the live recordings downlinked from NASA-TV of the NEAR Mission Operations Centre, John's Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, of the final moments before and during the touchdown of NEAR. Included in the live recordings are final statements and soundbites by those present including mission experts and NASA officials, and also the last images from NEAR as viewed on the control room monitors.
The spacecraft spent the last year in a close-orbit study of ateroid 433 Eros, a near-Earth asteroid that is currently 196 million miles (316 million kilometers) from Earth. During that time it collected 10 times more data than originally planned and completed all its science goals before attempting its descent to the asteroid.

02:15:37:13 GVs NEAR Missions Operations Centre, including images from NEAR on monitor screens.
02:58:27:07 Soundbites by Dr Richard Roca, Director JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory; Dr Stamatios Krimgis, Head of JHU's Space Department; Dan Goldin, NASA Administrator; Senator Paul S Sarbanes; Congressman Roscoe G Bartlett.
03:14:23:06 Last image from NEAR Shoemaker, described by Dr Mark Robinson, NEAR MSI/NIS Science Team Member.