Xona scales up LEO navigation constellation plans in Canada

TAMPA, Fla. — California-based Xona Space Systems is expanding to Canada ahead of deploying the first in a proposed constellation of small navigation satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) next year.

The five-year-old venture said Sept. 27 it has opened its first international office in Montréal, Québec, as it prepares to deploy a commercial positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) service as an alternative or backup to the GPS.

“As we move towards deployment of the constellation we are quickly headed towards a stage of the company where we will need to significantly scale up our manufacturing and customer service staff,” Xona co-founder and CEO Brian Manning said, “and have determined that keeping this 100% in Silicon Valley is not the most efficient path for us.”

He said the Montréal office is primarily focused on developing user equipment for its Pulsar PNT service, which would also require existing GPS devices to undergo firmware updates to ensure compatibility.

However, Xona is also considering expanding manufacturing operations to Canada for the PNT payloads it develops in-house.

Aerospacelab is under contract to produce the first small satellite platform for Xona from its recently opened facility in California. The satellite is set to be the European manufacturer’s first spacecraft in orbit for a commercial customer.

Manning said Aerospacelab has reserved a launch slot for its inaugural spacecraft on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Transporter 14 rideshare mission in June.

Aerospacelab aims to begin integrating the payload into its satellite platform before the end of this year.

Expansion time

Xona ultimately plans to operate a LEO constellation of between 250 and 300 small PNT satellites.

“We are still evaluating potential suppliers for the first deployment phase but we do plan to be finalize selections before the upcoming launch,” he said via email.

By operating in a much lower orbit than GPS and similar Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Xona says Pulsar could provide 10 times better accuracy than standard GNSS networks while delivering services via encrypted signals.

The value of customer contracts Xona has signed with commercial and government customers has doubled in the past six months, according to Manning, who declined to provide further details.

“With a single satellite we are focused mainly on the execution of our customer pilot programs to validate and refine PULSAR user equipment in various environments as coverage will obviously be intermittent with a single LEO satellite,” he added.

“With as few as 16 satellites though we will have persistent coverage over several high value customer regions that can begin generating real revenue.”

Xona has 35 full-time employees and aims to grow to 50 by early next year.

Tyler Reid, Xona co-founder and chief technology officer, is leading the team in Canada, where the venture currently employs seven people.

The expansion plans come after Xona raised $19 million in a Series A funding round earlier this year.

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