U.S. startup Xona Space Systems will send a batch of satellites into orbit this month for its own navigation system, Pulsar. It is intended to become the first precise commercial alternative to GPS. Users will be able to determine their coordinates with centimeter-level accuracy, while the stronger signal will be harder to jam. Following the launch, the company will begin testing the service with real customers.
A Signal from Low Orbit
All four global navigation systems—GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, and GLONASS—are government-owned. Their satellites orbit at altitudes of 19,000 to 23,000 kilometers, so their signals are weak by the time they reach Earth’s surface. These signals are easy to jam or spoof, and positioning errors amount to several meters.
Pulsar satellites will operate in low orbit, much closer to Earth, making their signals stronger. According to TechCrunch, the signal can be received even inside buildings and in densely built urban areas.
Xona CEO Brian Manning believes Pulsar’s signal strength should deter attempts to jam or spoof it. Centimeter-level accuracy is needed by autonomous vehicles and agricultural robots, for which GPS accuracy is insufficient.
The Constellation’s First Launch
Six satellites will launch in October as part of SpaceX’s Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission. Xona has not specified an exact launch date.
Four of them are built on a platform from Belgian company Aerospacelab and resemble the Pulsar-0 prototype launched in June 2025. The other two were assembled entirely at Xona’s own facility in Burlingame, California.
The operational constellation is expected to comprise 258 spacecraft. A satellite in low Earth orbit circles the planet in less than two hours and remains above a particular location for no more than 15 minutes, so hundreds are needed to provide a continuous signal. GPS satellites orbit much higher, and each covers a far larger portion of the planet, meaning roughly three dozen are sufficient for global coverage.
Precise Time Without Atomic Clocks
Satellite navigation depends on precise timing. A receiver calculates its distance from satellites using the time their signals take to arrive, which is why GPS spacecraft carry expensive atomic clocks.
Xona’s satellites operate without them, continually checking their time against ground-based reference sources. The company has not disclosed details of this mechanism.
Standard GPS receivers can receive Pulsar signals after a relatively simple software update. Xona users will therefore not have to wait for new devices to reach the market.
First Customers and Future Plans
Beta testing will begin when the satellites pass over mid-latitude regions approximately eight times a day. Among the first users is TimeBeat, a company specializing in time synchronization. Its CEO, Ian Gough, expects to use the service to check and correct the time on the company’s devices around the world.
By 2028, Xona hopes to cover the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea. The company has raised just over $300 million, including $20 million from the U.S. Space Force.
