Xona

POWERED BY PULSAR (EP 001) Autonomous Earth Rover robots to weed crop fields with light, not chemicals.

Real not rendered. Six Pulsar satellites launching in October. Production ramp up underway. Come build with us. https://lnkd.in/gnZaAtDR

Building Pulsar has always meant solving two challenges at once: proving a new approach to satellite navigation, then building the system required to deliver it at global scale. Our internal satellite team started with its first hire just over a year ago. With our first two in-house satellites designed, built, and scheduled to launch this October, Tim Graham joining Xona as VP of Satellite extends our ability to build and scale the system at the speed the world needs. Awesome to sit down with Jeremy to share a look into our progress with Ars Technica, full story in the comments!

Tim Graham has joined Xona as VP of Satellite, leading development across hardware, software, and propulsion as we scale Pulsar from a proven on-orbit system into a global service. After a decade at SpaceX, Tim brings deep experience testing, building, and scaling complex space hardware. He joins as Xona completes its first two in-house satellite buses, scheduled to launch alongside four additional Pulsar satellites this October. As he told Ars Technica, “If you look at the historical impact of major technological developments, GPS is up there as world-changing, bringing a more modern design for a modern technology GPS system to the world is a pretty exciting mission.”

We're excited to support the launch of Pulsar Verified, Xona's new programme designed to help users identify receivers that support future Pulsar LEO-PNT services. As part of the inaugural cohort, Septentrio's LeoRx is among the first receivers joining the programme and is currently progressing through verification. Designed to support early adoption of LEO-PNT, LeoRx enables researchers and developers to evaluate Xona's Pulsar X1 and X5 signals and explore next-generation positioning applications. The growing LEO-PNT ecosystem represents an important step forward for resilient and robust positioning technologies, and we're pleased to be part of this journey alongside Xona. Congratulations to the Xona team on today's launch. We look forward to continuing our collaboration and supporting the future of satellite navigation. #GNSS #LEOPNT #SatelliteNavigation #Pulsar #Xona

Introducing Pulsar Verified As we accelerate our commercial deployment, we’re making it easier for innovators to build compatability for the next era of navigation in their applications. Today we're introducing Pulsar Verified, our ecosystem program that helps GNSS equipment manufacturers validate their products will work with Pulsar signals as our service comes online. The inaugural cohort includes companies leading the industry in bringing resilient, high-performance navigation to the devices the world depends on, including Trimble Inc., Septentrio (part of Hexagon AB), STMicroelectronics, Safran, StarNav LLC, and Keysight Technologies. Read the full blog post in the comments from Xona CTO Tyler Reid.

Most people think GPS is solved. Xona was built on the opposite belief. In a conversation with NGP Capital’s Upal Basu, Xona CEO Brian Manning reflected on Xona’s path from an instinct that GPS would need a commercial upgrade to real proof from orbit. Satellite navigation has historically belonged to governments and superpowers. Xona is building a commercial upgrade designed for the devices, machines, and critical systems that need more than GPS alone can provide. Pulsar-0 has now shown what many thought impossible: a high-power commercial navigation signal operating next to GPS with no interference. As Brian put it: “The math said it would work. Orbit proved it.” Full conversation in the comments.

One year ago today we launched our first full power satellite. A lot has happened since then...   We’ve demonstrated unprecedented performance in more than a dozen commercial receivers, conducted testing in hundreds of scenarios all across the world, conducted multiple updates on the satellite, more than doubled our team, designed and built our own satellite, and opened our satellite factory in Burlingame.   As Pulsar-0 celebrates a year in orbit, it has shown how Pulsar changes what users should expect from satellite navigation: stronger reception, native centimeter-level precision, cryptographic authentication, and continuous improvements in capability even after launch via software updates.    The future is coming at pace never before seen in the navigation industry.