An extension of 10 days should allow scientists to glean science data directly from the surface of Asteroid 433 Eros. Healthy telemetry from the probe has been received ever since the safe, odds-against landing on Monday, and the spacecraft is being checked out as to its overall health.

"This has been successful beyond our highest expectations," said Jay Bergstralh, acting director for NASA Solar System Exploration at the agencys headquarters in Washington, D.C. "NASA intends to take advantage of this success by extending the mission up to 10 days."

NASA gave a green-light to Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker project officials to continue the mission, announcing the decision at a press conference here at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

APL built the spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA.

During the extended mission, APL will turn on the probe's X-ray/Gamma Ray Spectrometer to learn more about the surface and subsurface composition of the asteroid Eros.

The $223 million NEAR Shoemaker mission was slated to officially end on February 14. Project funds are nearly depleted. No additional radio link time between Earth and the craft was on tap -- that is, until the chancy landing proved successful.

The cost of the extension is unclear, Bergstralh said. Tracking NEAR will require the use of NASA's largest 230-foot (70-meter) radio antennas in its Deep Space Network.

"I think this is doable on an every-other-day or every-third-day basis," he said. "The project has some reserve. They haven't presented us with an estimate yet."

NEAR Shoemaker continued to send signals to the NEAR team two days after the touchdown.

"This was a soft landing...maybe the softest of all time," Farquhar said, contrasting NEAR Shoemakers daring dive onto Eros with landers on the Moon, Venus and Mars. "We landed at an impact speed between 1.5 and 1.8 meters (5 and 6 feet) per second, which is less than 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) per hour," he said.

NEAR Shoemaker carried no landing gear and was not built for such a maneuver.

Eros is about the size of New Yorks Manhattan Island -- looking like a giant shoe -- slowly turning head over heel through space. On duty since February 14 of last year, NEAR Shoemaker had been orbiting the huge object, diving across its dusty terrain at various altitudes.

Before coming to a dead stop on Eros on Monday, the craft apparently made a short hop or "jiggle" on the asteroid's surface at touchdown. Spacecraft thrusters were still firing when the craft made contact with the surface, but cut off on impact.

Plumes from the spacecrafts thrusters likely caused some buffeting of the probe as it closed in on the surface.

The probe is now resting on the asteroid in such a position that the camera and spectrometer are pointed at the surface. But more images would not be of any worth, Veverka told SPACE.com, as they would be out of focus. The camera is designed to take pictures from far away, not right on the surface, he said.

A plan to re-launch the probe from the asteroid was scrapped due to lack of fuel.

"We have no fuel on the spacecraft, plus or minus 8 kilograms (18 pounds)," said Robert Farquhar, NEAR mission director at the Applied Physics Laboratory.

A more important science goal was the prospect of gathering data with the spectrometer. Still in question is exactly what Eros is composed of, and whether or not the asteroid matches a class of meteorite recovered here on Earth.

Bobby Williams, leader of the NEAR Shoemaker navigation team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said controlling the spacecraft onto Eros "was a feat unparalleled in space history."

"We did something untried in the history of deep-space navigation," Williams said, with the craft gently bumping to a full stop without flipping over. "The good Lord smiled on us when we were landing."