About Genesis

Genesis is a mission of the FutureNAV programme, an optional ESA Navigation programme with support from Italy, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Finland and the UK. Genesis was approved at ESA’s Ministerial Council in 2022, and at ESA’s Ministerial Council in 2025 the deployment and exploitation of Genesis was subscribed.

The goal of Genesis is to significantly contribute to improving the accuracy and stability of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF). The ITRF serves as a reference for all space- and ground-based observations for navigation and Earth sciences. Improving the ITRF will impact high accuracy navigation applications with benefits in aviation, autonomous vehicle driving and traffic management, for example. In Earth sciences it will help refine models used for climate and environmental monitoring and much more. Additionally, by contributing to the improvement and consistency of the Earth reference frame, Genesis addresses the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a 'global geodetic reference frame for sustainable development.' 

Genesis's extreme accuracy is achieved by co-locating the four geodetic (Earth-measuring) techniques (satellite navigation, very-long-baseline interferometry, satellite laser ranging and DORIS) onboard one well calibrated satellite that acts as a flying observatory. The instruments will be synchronized by an ultra-stable oscillator (USO). 

For more information, visit www.esa.int/Genesis