LAUREL, Maryland -- NEAR Shoemaker moved this week to an orbit about 62 miles (100 km) from the asteroid Eros, allowing the robot ship to take the closest pictures yet of the irregularly shaped space rock, mission managers said.

A five-second engine burn nudged the NASA orbiter into its current circular position. At the time of the April 11 maneuver, the spacecraft and asteroid were about 128 million miles (206 million km) from Earth.

The spacecraft will remain in the orbit for 11 days, moving three times around the asteroid at just under 5 miles per hour. The asteroid is roughly twice the size of Manhattan.

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