California-based Xona Space Systems is preparing to launch the first six production satellites for a low-Earth-orbit navigation network in October 2026, with early service planned for 2027. The company’s pitch is blunt: put positioning satellites much closer to users than conventional global navigation systems and deliver a signal that is far harder to lose.
Xona says its Pulsar satellites could provide signals up to 100 times stronger than GPS and other global navigation satellite systems that operate from higher orbits. If that works as described, the immediate beneficiaries would be users in places where today’s satellite navigation performs poorly: dense city streets, heavy tree cover and indoor spaces where GPS signals often arrive weak, reflected or absent.
The same stronger signal could also make positioning services less vulnerable to interference. Ars Technica reported that GPS jamming has become a growing problem for commercial aviation, maritime shipping and smartphone apps that rely on satellite timing and location data. Xona’s claim is that a higher-power signal from low orbit gives receivers more room to function in those conditions than GPS alone.
What Xona says it is building
The company’s planned constellation is 258 satellites, branded Pulsar. Xona says that once the full network is deployed in the years after the first production launch, customers should be able to determine their position anywhere on Earth to within several centimeters.
That is a company claim, not a demonstrated operating service. The first production satellites have not launched yet, early service is still scheduled for 2027, and the full constellation depends on launches over the following years. For now, the concrete milestone is the planned six-satellite deployment in October 2026.
Adrien Perkins, Xona’s co-founder and vice president of engineering, told Ars Technica that the added power is intended to reach environments GPS does not reliably serve today. He said the company expects the stronger signal to penetrate indoor spaces and to keep working farther into jamming conditions than GPS on its own.
Why lower orbit changes the positioning problem
GPS and other established satellite navigation systems rely on spacecraft in higher orbits. Their signals cover broad areas, but they arrive at phones, vehicles and aircraft after traveling a long way. Buildings, foliage and deliberate interference can degrade or block them before receivers can calculate a clean position.
Xona’s model uses low-Earth-orbit satellites to change that link budget. A stronger received signal does not magically solve every positioning error, but it can give receivers more usable data in difficult radio environments. That is the practical difference Xona is selling: fewer dead zones, better operation in cities and more resistance when someone is trying to drown out navigation signals.
The stakes are larger than turn-by-turn directions. Commercial flights, ships and phone apps all depend on satellite navigation, and Ars Technica has reported broader disruption from GPS jamming. Xona is positioning Pulsar as an additional layer for users who need location data when conventional GNSS signals are weak or contested.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.