TURIN, Italy---In Turin today, Alenia Spazio and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed the contract for the construction of the GOCE satellite. The contract is worth some 280 billion lire (147 million Euro) and Alenia Spazio will head a large European industrial consortium with responsibility for the design, development, integration and testing of the satellite.
GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) will be the first mission in ESA's "Earth Explorer" program. The satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2006 and the mission will last 30 months. The mission is intended to provide the first global high-resolution map of the Earth's gravitational field. The accuracy and thoroughness of the data provided by GOCE will permit a considerable advance in our understanding of the structure and dynamics of planet Earth and large-scale ocean circulation and its influence on climate.
The industrial consortium (made up of major European companies such as Astrium, Alcatel Space and ONERA) includes LABEN, responsible for the construction of the on-board computer, which is also competing for the realization of the multi-channel GPS reception system.
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Alenia Spazio, A Finmeccanica Company, Awarded Contract To Build GOCE
