Following launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station August 8, 2001, the Genesis spacecraft headed toward an orbit around L1, a point between Earth and the Sun where the gravity of both bodies is balanced.

Genesis unfurled its collector arrays on December 3, 2001 when the canister cover opened to expose two of the five collector arrays - the "bulk" array in the cover and the topmost one of four stacked arrays. The surface of each collector array contained an area approximately 3500 cm². The science canister also contained a 28 cm2 concentrator - an electrostatic mirror designed to focus particles on special chemical vapor deposit (CVD) diamond and silicon carbide surfaces. The other three arrays were exposed when different regimes of solar wind were active - the slow interstream regime, the fast coronal hole regime, and the coronal mass ejecta. The 28-month collection was completed April 1, 2004 when the arrays pivoted back into their original positions and canister cover closed.

On September 8, 2004, Genesis re-entered Earth on target to Utah Test and Training Range. Although the sample return capsule's parachutes did not deploy, the science canister was recovered. Collectors were packaged in a UTTR cleanroom and transported to Johnson Space Center, where the collection is curated.

Related links:
JPL: Genesis Mission Update
Los Alamos National Laboratory: Genesis Information and Data