Update from the Operations team at ESOC following the 23:42 CET pass:

Contact with GOCE was made once again from the Troll station in Antarctica at 23:42 CET. The central computer temperature is at 80ºC and the battery is at 84ºC.

At an altitude of less than 120 km, the spacecraft is – against expectations – still functional.

Editor’s Note: The Kármán line, or Karman line, lies at an altitude of 100 kilometres above Earth sea level, and commonly represents the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.