Xona Space Systems is preparing to activate the first commercial precision alternative to GPS, with six of its satellites scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX rocket this month. Once the spacecraft are in orbit, the Burlingame, California, startup intends to begin beta-testing its Pulsar service with real customers. The company was founded in 2019 by five engineers who met in Stanford University's aerospace engineering graduate program.
Pulsar is designed to deliver centimeter-level geolocation precision, compared with the meter-level precision of GPS, and its signal is intended to be strong enough to be detected inside buildings and in urban environments. According to CEO Brian Manning, that strength could also help deter jamming and spoofing. Xona developed an architecture that lets its satellites keep time without costly atomic clocks onboard by relying on their proximity to Earth and close communication with ground-based sources of truth. The company also engineered its signals to be received by existing GPS receivers through a relatively simple software modification, which Xona says gives it immediate market access and eases the regulatory path for broadcasting navigation signals.
Four of the six satellites launching this month are similar to a prototype Xona launched last year that proved its technology, and they are built around a satellite platform from Aerospace Labs. The remaining two were built entirely by Xona at its headquarters and are meant to serve as the foundation of a 258-satellite operational constellation. Once the satellites are in orbit and passing over the mid-latitudes roughly eight times a day, Xona can begin beta-testing Pulsar with customers.
One early pilot participant is TimeBeat, an electronic timing company whose CEO, Ian Gough, said the trial will let his engineers check and correct the timing provided by its devices around the world. Xona aims to offer full coverage in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea by 2028. The company has raised just over $300 million from venture investors since its founding, including $20 million from the U.S. Space Force, reflecting government interest in the technology as jamming and spoofing of satellite navigation services become more common in conflicts.
Xona is also positioning Pulsar for a future of expanding autonomy. CTO Tyler Reid, whose PhD thesis on using low-earth-orbit satellites to improve navigation inspired the company, previously worked on self-driving cars at Ford and concluded that a service like Pulsar would be needed to realize the potential of autonomous vehicles. Manning compared the safety standard Xona hopes to meet to civil aviation, saying the company wants to provide a service that lets a car's occupant feel as safe taking their hands off the wheel as they would reclining in an airliner.
The effort targets a market Manning described as the hardware rather than the service, noting that billions of devices are sold every year and that buyers are seeking better performance. GPS and similar networks built by Europe, China, and Russia provide significant value but are easy to jam and not precise enough to be used alone for applications such as farming robots or self-driving cars, the problems Xona was founded to address.
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