Editing NEAR Shoemaker (section)

===The journey to Mathilde===
[[File:NEARlaunch.jpg|thumb|left|Launch of ''NEAR'', February 1996]]
After launching on a Delta 7925-8 (a [[Delta II]] launch vehicle with nine strap-on solid-rocket boosters and a [[Star 48]] (PAM-D) third stage) on February 17, 1996, and exited from Earth orbit, ''NEAR'' entered the first part of its cruise phase. ''NEAR'' spent most of the cruise phase in a minimal activity "hibernation" state, which ended a few days before the flyby of the 61&nbsp;km diameter asteroid [[253 Mathilde]].<ref name="NSSDC" />

[[File:(253) mathilde crop.jpg|thumb|right|One of the images from the flyby of [[253 Mathilde]]]]
On June 27, 1997, ''NEAR'' flew by Mathilde within 1200&nbsp;km at 12:56 UT at 9.93&nbsp;km/s, returning imaging and other instrument data. The flyby produced over 500 images, covering 60% of Mathilde's surface,<ref name="flyby">{{cite web | last=Williams | first=David R. | date=December 18, 2001 | url=http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mission/near/near_mathilde.html | title=NEAR Flyby of Asteroid 253 Mathilde | publisher=[[NASA]] | access-date=August 10, 2006 }}</ref> as well as gravitational data allowing calculations of Mathilde's dimensions and mass.<ref name="Yeomans 1997">{{cite journal | author=D. K. Yeomans |display-authors=etal | title=Estimating the mass of asteroid 253 Mathilde from tracking data during the NEAR flyby | journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] | volume=278 | issue=5346 | date=1997 | pages=2106–9 | pmid=9405343 | url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/278/5346/2106 | access-date=August 29, 2007 | doi=10.1126/science.278.5346.2106 | bibcode=1997Sci...278.2106Y}}</ref>