As I understand it, the DISTANCE parameter of the GOTO command, is measured from the camera to the center of the object. The manual says:
Describes how far away from the object you want to be positioned, in units of the object's radius, plus 1. For example, if the object's radius is 10000 km, and you specify 6 for distance, you will be positioned 50000 km from the object's center.
I think the sentence should end as: "50000 km from the object's surface".
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Ben