The spacecraft is due to touchdown at 15:04 local time (2004 GMT).

NEAR Shoemaker fired its thrusters for 20 seconds to ease the spacecraft down toward an altitude of 25 kilometers (15.5 miles).

"The de-orbit burn ... has worked quite well," said Robert Farquhar, NEAR mission director at the University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, outside Washington.

"We are within one percent of our targeted accuracy. We're quite happy about that," he said.

With the first of five thrusters firing, the spacecraft was to slow to a speed of eight kilometers (five miles) per hour from 32 kilometers (20 miles) per hour.

Touchdown procedures, expected to last four and a half hours, began at 10:31 local time (1531 GMT). The spacecraft had been orbiting Eros at 35 kilometers (22 miles) altitude.

Asteroid 433 Eros, named after the Greek god of love, is 33 kilometers (21 miles) long and 13 kilometers (8 miles) in diameter, and lies 316 million kilometers (196 million miles) from earth.

It takes just more than 17 minutes for a command from Earth to reach the NEAR spacecraft.

Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Space Memory Foam Mattress Review SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News SPACEDAILY Satellite Launch To Boost DTH In India Calcutta, India (SPX) Dec 28, 2005 The successful launch Thursday of India's heaviest satellite from spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana may have boosted the country's space research efforts to yet another level, but it has also lifted the spirits of at least three Direct-To-Home televisions broadcasters, one of which has been waiting for years to launch its services in India.