Launched: 17 March 2009

Launcher: Rockot (with Breeze-KM upper stage) by Eurockot Launch Services GmbH

Launch site: Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia

Mission control: European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany

Data download: to Kiruna (Sweden) and Svalbard (Norway) ground stations

Processing & archiving: ESA’s Earth observation centre in Italy (ESRIN) and the distributed High-level Processing Facilities

Number of instruments: 3

Nominal life: 20 months

Mission cost: €350 million (including launcher and operations)

Orbit: about 260 km altitude, polar, Sun-synchronous

Mass: 1100 kg

Size: 5.3 m long, about 1 m body diameter

Propulsion tank: 40 kg of xenon

Geoid accuracy: 1 - 2 cm vertically with 100 km spatial resolution

Gravitational acceleration at Earth’s surface is about 9.8 m/s², varying from a minimum of 9.788 m/s² at the equator to a maximum of 9.838 m/s² at the poles.

The six accelerometers (three pairs in three orthogonal directions) are some 100 times more sensitive than any previously flown in space.