spacetoday.net: Rockot launches gravity mapping satellite

Posted: Tue, Mar 17, 2009, 9:37 PM ET (0137 GMT)
Rockot launch of GOCE (ESA)

A Russian rocket successfully launched Tuesday a European satellite designed to accurately map the Earth's gravity field. The Rockot vehicle lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 10:21 am EDT (1421 GMT) and placed 1,050-kilogram the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) spacecraft into a 280-kilometer orbit at an inclination of 96.7 degrees. GOCE was scheduled to launch yesterday but the launch was scrubbed in the final seconds when the doors of the service tower at the launch pad failed to open, preventing the tower from moving away from the launch pad. The spacecraft, built by a European industry team that includes Thales Alenia Space and EADS Astrium, is designed to measure the Earth's gravity field with unprecedented resolution, allowing scientists to better study ocean circulation and sea-level change. GOCE is the first in a new series of ESA Earth sciences spacecraft.