Xona’s commercial GPS alternative is about to go live

Xona Space Systems, a startup founded in 2019 by five Stanford engineers, is preparing to launch six precision commercial GPS alternatives into orbit later this month. The startup aims to disrupt the de facto government space monopolies that provide navigation and timing services. While GPS and other analog satellite networks offer significant value, they are vulnerable to jamming, lack precision for certain applications, and are provided for free, which creates a market for better-performing alternatives.

Xona's CEO, Brian Manning, initially found the idea of competing with GPS "dumb," but after thorough research, he realized that the market is the hardware, with billions of devices sold annually, creating a substantial demand for superior performance. The company's challenge lies in developing a unique architecture for its satellites to maintain time without expensive atomic clocks and ensuring that its signals can be easily received by existing GPS receivers with minimal software modifications.

The first batch of six satellites, two of which are built entirely by Xona, will be launched later this month on a SpaceX rocket. These satellites, part of the company's eventual 258-satellite constellation called Pulsar, promise centimeter-level precision in geolocation, an improvement over GPS's meter-level precision. Pulsar will offer reliable signals even inside buildings and urban environments, potentially deterring jamming and spoofing attempts.

The company aims to achieve full coverage in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea by 2028, with hopes of contributing to the safety of autonomous transportation systems, as noted by Ian Gough, CEO of TimeBeat, a timing technology company.