A highly accurate time scale, available and accessible in (near-)real-time is essential for precise orbit determination and navigation tasks. In its responsibility to provide reference frames, orbits and time information to ESA missions, ESA’s Navigation Support Office and the Ground Station Systems Division jointly operate a realisation of the UTC time scale at ESOC. The  Universal Time Coordinated (UTC)  maintained by the Paris-based Bureau International de Poids et Mesures (BIPM) and relies on contributions from time laboratories spread over the entire globe. ESA is one of these approved time laboratories, contributing as UTC(ESA).