VEGA supports GOCE gravity mapping mission for ESA
16 March 2009 – VEGA, a Finmeccanica company, is preparing for
the launch of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gravity Field and
Steady-State Ocean Explorer (GOCE) today, Monday 16 March 2009.
GOCE has been developed to generate detailed understanding of
one of the Earth's most fundamental forces of nature – gravity –
and will map the field with unprecedented accuracy and spatial
resolution. As part of ESA’s Living Planet programme – which is
focused on Earth observation – GOCE will be the first of a series
of Earth Explorer satellites in orbit, designed to provide
information for understanding critical Earth system variables.
VEGA is playing a key role on the GOCE flight control team and
mission control team (MCT), providing systems and operations
engineering support, and running the simulations campaign with both
the Prime and Back-Up Simulations Officers. This campaign involves
MCTs taking part in day-long simulations, imitating the spacecraft
and ground stations, generating system failures, and ensuring all
MCT members are adept at dealing with possible live problems, once
GOCE is launched.
John Auburn, VEGA’s Aerospace Business Director, said: “VEGA has
been working on GOCE for many years. Our operations and training
expertise has been gained over the past 30 years from such
pioneering missions, and we are always delighted to support ESOC in
their innovative programmes.”
Further information
For further information, please contact Marketing Manager, Karen
Rogers, via email on karen.rogers@vega.co.uk.