his exploded view of the GOCE spacecraft shows the central location of the gradiometer instrument (in red), nominally at the satellite centre-of-mass. Clearly visible are also the micro-thrusters located at the ends of the body, along with the winglets for passive "aerodynamic" stabilisation. The spacecraft is fully symmetric about two planes in order to minimise the torques acting on the satellite as well as to accommodate both summer and winter launches into sun-synchronous orbit.