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This paper introduces the first ESA Core Earth Explorer mission, GOCE, in the context of ESA's Living Planet programme. GOCE will measure highly accurate, high spatial resolution differential accelerations in three dimensions along a well characterised orbit: the mission is planned for launch in early 2006. The mission objectives are to obtain gravity gradient data such that new global and regional models of the static Earth's gravity field and of the geoid can be deduced at length scales down to 100 km. These products will have broad application in the fields of geodesy, oceanography, solid-earth physics and glaciology.