Comment Non-Duplication (and GRACE is US + German) (Score 1) 119
Like others mentioned, GOCE and GRACE use pretty different technology (and are all, at this point, experiments). Also, give Germany some credit - GRACE is a joint US-German experiment. International partnerships are a pretty good way for the US to stretch its earth-observation dollar. See: http://science.nasa.gov/missions/grace/
I don't know much about the GOCE experiment, but GRACE's gravity information has been able to show things like ice cap thinning in Greenland, and the density attributable to large (water) aquifers elsewhere.