Xona Space Systems raises funding following successful low Earth orbit launch

Xona Space Systems announced on October 22 that it raised 250 million dollars at a valuation of 2.45 billion dollars, SatNews reported. The funding announcement came two days after the company placed six satellites into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The uncrewed payloads launched on SpaceX's fifth Bandwagon rideshare mission, which carried 32 total payloads from Cape Canaveral. [1]

The company is building a low Earth orbit navigation service designed to complement GPS, according to SatNews. Xona Space Systems stated that its signals are built to function in environments where traditional GPS signals fail. Brian Manning, who co-founded the company in 2019 alongside fellow Stanford University engineers and serves as chief executive, is set to speak on satellite navigation jamming and spoofing at the Silicon Valley Space Week MilSat Symposium. [1]

The planned Pulsar constellation will operate at an altitude of approximately 1,080 kilometers and consists of 258 small satellites designed for global coverage. The network aims to deliver navigation accuracy of two centimeters horizontally and four centimeters vertically, with timing precision within 10 nanoseconds. The system uses signals up to 100 times stronger than traditional GPS L1 C/A signals to provide resistance against jamming and cryptographic authentication against spoofing. [5]

The deployment of the six satellites follows the earlier launch of Xona Space Systems' demonstration satellite, Huginn, on May 25, 2022, which successfully broadcasted and validated navigation signals from orbit. [5]