ESA - Observing the Earth - Understanding Our Planet - September launch for ESA's gravity mission GOCE

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September launch for ESA's gravity mission GOCE

27 May 2008

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GOCE in the Large Space Simulator at ESA's Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Credits: ESA

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GOCE går inn i bane

About 90 minutes after launch and almost one orbit around the Earth, the Rockot Breeze upper-stage is oriented to inject the GOCE spacecraft into orbit. This happens around 295 km above central Europe within range of the ground stations in Kiruna in northern Sweden and Svalbard north of Norway. At this point, the first confirmation that all is well with the satellite is expected.

GOCE is launched into a Sun-synchronous, near-circular orbit with an inclination of 96.7º.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

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Solar panel inspection during final testing of GOCE satellite at ESA-ESTEC. The spacecraft is equipped with four body-mounted and two wing-mounted solar panels. In orbit, the same side of the satellite remains facing the Sun. Due to this configuration, the solar panels will experience extreme temperature variations, so materials have been used that will tolerate temperatures as high as 160ºC and as low as -170ºC.

Credits: ESA

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In orbit, the same side of the GOCE satellite remains facing the Sun. The spacecraft is equipped with four body-mounted and two wing-mounted solar panels. Due to the configuration in orbit, the solar panels will experience extreme temperature variations so it was necessary to use materials that will tolerate temperatures as high as 160ºC and as low as -170ºC.

Credits: ESA–AOES-Medialab

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For around 20 months, GOCE will gather data to map Earth’s gravity field with unprecedented accuracy and spatial resolution. The final gravity map and model of the geoid will provide users worldwide with well-defined data products that will be instrumental in advancing science and applications in a broad range of disciplines.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab