GOCE team gearing up for new launch date

[Robby]

GOCE team gearing up for new launch date

ESA and European industries have updated the planning of the preparatory activities for a new tentative launch date of 27 October 2008 for the GOCE satellite.

(Via European Space Agency)

 

[Kevin]

In case anybody is wondering what GOCE stands for, it is an abbreviation for "Gravity field and and steady state Ocean Circulation Explorer" and is a ESA mission.

GOCE Satellite

The GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) is an ESA mission dedicated to measuring the Earth's gravity field and modelling the geoid with extremely high accuracy and spatial resolution. It is the first Earth Explorer Core mission to be developed as part of ESA's Living Planet Programme and is scheduled for launch in May 2008. The satellite consists of a single rigid octagonal spacecraft, approximately 5 m long and 1 m in diameter with fixed solar wings and no moving parts.

The "no moving parts" bit has my curiosity piqued.