  We consider the vacuum energy for a configuration of a sphere in front of a
plane, both obeying conductor boundary condition, at small separation. For the
separation becoming small we derive the first next-to-leading order of the
asymptotic expansion in the separation-to-radius ratio $\ep$. This correction
is of order $\ep$. In opposite to the scalar cases it contains also
contributions proportional to logarithms in first and second order, $\ep \ln
\ep$ and $\ep (\ln \ep)^2$. We compare this result with the available findings
of numerical and experimental approaches.
