SAN FRANCISCO, July 16 — The hum of construction and the glow of soldering irons fill the workspace at Xona Space Systems headquarters here, a scene that feels more like a bustling startup garage than the nerve center of a challenge to the Global Positioning System. On the ground, engineers are racing toward a deadline that could reshape how autonomous vehicles, drones, and military assets find their way. Xona is building PULSAR, a satellite navigation constellation designed to live in low-Earth orbit.
The company’s plan calls for 258 satellites to be deployed into LEO, an altitude dramatically lower than the roughly 20,200 kilometers where GPS satellites orbit. That proximity to Earth is the key to the whole endeavor.
Stronger signals, sharper accuracy, and a system that is far harder to jam or spoof — those are the promises of a constellation that sits much closer to the ground. The company was founded in 2019 by Brian Manning, a former SpaceX engineer. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Manning and his team have already put metal in the sky: the first two demonstration satellites launched in 2023. Now, with initial service expected by 2026, the pressure is on to move from proving the concept to delivering a working product.
Building an Alternative, Not a Replacement
Xona has raised more than $19 million in funding to get this far. A $10 million seed round closed in 2021, followed by a $9.5 million Series A round in 2022. That capital has gone into designing a system that is explicitly meant to complement existing GPS infrastructure, not replace it.
The company is positioning PULSAR as an enhancement — a layer of precision that GPS alone cannot provide, especially in environments where signals are weak or contested. For commercial users, the implications are immediate.
Autonomous vehicles navigating city streets, drones delivering packages through urban canyons, and industrial equipment operating in GPS-denied zones all stand to benefit from a signal that is both stronger and more precise. For government users, the reduced vulnerability to jamming is a critical selling point in an era of electronic warfare. The lower orbit is the engine of this advantage.
A signal from 20,200 km away arrives faint and easily drowned out. A signal from low-Earth orbit arrives with far more power, cutting through interference and reaching receivers that GPS cannot reliably serve.
Two Birds in the Sky, a Constellation to Follow
The two demonstration satellites launched in 2023 are already in orbit, proving the basic technology works. They are the vanguard of a planned fleet of 258. That number — 258 — represents the full constellation, a scale that will require significant additional manufacturing and launch capacity.
By nightfall in San Francisco, the engineering teams are still at their desks. The work is steady, methodical.
The first two satellites have validated the design. Now the task is scaling up — building the rest of the fleet, securing launch contracts, and preparing to turn on initial service by the end of 2026. What happens next will depend on execution.
The company has the funding, the technical foundation, and the first hardware in orbit. The question is whether it can deliver a working constellation before the demand for precision navigation — from self-driving cars to military drones — outstrips what GPS alone can provide.
Sources
- Inside the race to find GPS alternatives | MIT Technology Review
- Xona Pulsar satellites set to launch a GPS alternative
