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News  GOCE arrives safely at launch site in Russia
Following its departure from ESA in the Netherlands, GOCE has arrived safely at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia – from where the spacecraft will launch on 10 September 2008. After a safe landing in Arkhangelsk on 29 July the GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite and the 11 containers of support equipment were off-loaded from the Antonov cargo aircraft and transferred by truck to a special train. Along with escort personnel from ESA, Thales Alenia Space and Eurockot, the shipment was then carried some 200 km southward to the spacecraft preparation facilities at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, where it arrived in the afternoon of 31 July.
On Friday 1 August, the satellite and support equipment were off-loaded from the train and transferred to the clean room at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The following morning the container holding the satellite was opened and initial inspections confirmed that the satellite had arrived undamaged. Another milestone now achieved, the science community is one step closer to acquiring a map of the Earth's gravity field of unprecedented accuracy and resolution to advance our knowledge of ocean circulation, sea-level change and Earth-interior processes.
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