On Tuesday 19 March, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed contracts with a number of European companies worth a total of 233 million euros to develop the Genesis space probe and a LEO-PNT orbital demonstrator in order to meet “the growing need for more resilient and accurate navigation and to ensure that (...) Europe is the world leader in satellite navigation”, explained Javier Benedicto, ESA’s Director of Navigation, in a press release.
The contract for Genesis is worth 76.6 million euros. A consortium of 14 entities led by OHB Italia S.p.A. is responsible for developing, manufacturing, qualifying, calibrating, launching and operating Genesis, scheduled for launch in 2028.
For LEO-PNT, two parallel contracts worth 78.4 million euros each were signed for two end-to-end in-orbit demonstrators for positioning, navigation and synchronisation in low-Earth orbit. One of the contracts is being led by the Spanish company GMV Aerospace and Defence S.A.U. as the main leader of the overall system and OHB System AG (Germany) as the main partner and player in the space segment. The other contract is led by Thales Alenia Space France S.A.S (France) as overall prime contractor for the system and Thales Alenia Space SPA (Italy) as prime contractor for the space segment. The two consortia involve more than 50 entities from 14 countries. The launch of the first LEO-PNT satellite is planned within 20 months of launch, and the complete constellation should be in orbit before 2027, according to the ESA. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)