Status: Active. First Launch: 1994-02-19. Last Launch: 1996-02-17. Number: 2 . Thrust: 4,000.00 kN (899,200 lbf). Gross mass: 220,000 kg (480,000 lb). Height: 38.20 m (125.30 ft). Diameter: 2.44 m (8.00 ft). Apogee: 400,000 km (240,000 mi).
Stationed at 133 deg W; replaced Galaxy 1. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A). Positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 133 deg W in 1994-1999 As of 5 September 2001 located at 132.97 deg W drifting at 0.005 deg E per day. As of 2007 Mar 9 located at 88.88W drifting at 3.795W degrees per day.
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission was the first of NASA's Discovery missions, a series of small-scale spacecraft designed to proceed from development to flight in under three years for a cost of less than $150 million. The spacecraft's mission was to rendezvous with and achieve orbit around the asteroid Eros in January 1999, and study the asteroid for one year. However as it flew by the Earth on 23 January 1998, a problem caused an abort of the first encounter burn. The mission had to be rescoped for a later encounter but successfully entered orbit around Eros on Valentine's Day 2000 and ended the mission by gently landing on its surface on 12 February 2001.