The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft is taking a wider view of Eros, after an August 26 maneuver sent it climbing toward an orbit 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the asteroid's center.

Controlled from the NEAR Mission Operations Center at the Applied Physics Laboratory, the two-minute engine burn lifted the car-sized spacecraft from the 31-mile (50-kilometer) orbit it occupied through most of August. When NEAR Shoemaker reaches its new vantage on Sept. 5 another maneuver - the 13th since the spacecraft encountered Eros in February - will "circularize" its orbit and refine its position.

Now 89 million miles (144 million kilometers) from Earth, NEAR Shoemaker continues to snap detaile((d.images)) and gather information about the complex and cratered surface of the tumbling, 21-mile-long asteroid. The spacecraft will get its closest look yet at Eros in October, when it flies to within 4 miles (6 kilometers) of the surface. The yearlong orbit ends in February 2001.

Click here for complete information on the mission and the "Image of the Day" archive.

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