A commercial satellite navigation network built to survive jamming and spoofing has cleared the paperwork needed to grow. The FCC granted Xona permission to broadcast navigation signals from its low Earth orbit fleet. More than 250 satellites are planned, and Xona called the approval the last administrative gate before full rollout. The first six production satellites launch in October.
Pulsar’s maiden unit reached orbit in June 2025, and more satellites are on the factory line. Because the fleet flies closer to Earth than GPS birds, its signals arrive roughly 100 times stronger, letting receivers fix positions to within centimeters even far from base stations.
The orbit choice also reaches the far North, where GPS geometry is weak, a draw for Canada: Xona keeps a Montreal office and holds a Canadian Space Agency SmartEarth grant of about $495K for work tied to remote sensing and navigation.
The jamming angle is what is drawing the most defense interest. Furuno, a Japanese electronics maker, reported receiving Pulsar signals inside a spoofing test environment at the Fukushima Robot Test Field, with only minor firmware changes, and called the demonstration a first for Japan. The tests pitted the network against interference that knocked out traditional GNSS signals, while encryption adds resistance to spoofing.
Co-founder and chief technology officer Tyler Reid said jamming and spoofing now reach into the commercial systems the world depends on daily, from aviation to power grids, and that a low orbit constellation is easier to replace than today’s medium orbit GPS fleet if a satellite is destroyed.
The company’s Pulsar Verified initiative is bringing chipmakers, receiver builders and simulation tool makers into the ecosystem.
