Move over, GPS: Navigation satellites in low-Earth orbit are making a comeback | Xona aims to deploy 258 satellites into low-Earth orbit as a GPS alternative.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/move-over-gps-navigation-satellites-in-low-earth-orbit-are-making-a-comeback/
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>New navigation satellites in low-Earth orbit could provide 100 times stronger signal strength compared to GPS and other global navigation satellite systems operating from higher orbital altitudes—enabling greater location accuracy within dense cities, under thick foliage, and even inside buildings. Such signals would also likely prove more resilient to interference at a time when commercial flights, maritime shipping, and even various smartphone apps face increasingly widespread disruption from GPS jamming.
>That vision may start to take shape when the first six production satellites of California-based Xona Space Systems are scheduled to launch in October 2026, with early service starting in 2027. Once the full constellation of 258 Pulsar satellites has been launched in the following years, Xona claims that customers will be able to accurately pinpoint their locations anywhere on Earth to within several centimeters.
>“That added power means that we can get into that indoor environment that GPS can’t get to today,” Adrien Perkins, co-founder and VP of engineering at Xona Space Systems, told Ars. “Our higher power allows you to get into those jamming environments a lot further than you would with GPS by itself.”
>Xona has already launched its first satellite, called Pulsar-0, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rideshare mission on July 1, 2025. The Pulsar-0 satellite has participated in multiple “live-sky jamming tests across multiple countries” to show how having signals 100 times stronger than GPS can help to reduce a jammer’s effective area by 95 percent, according to an Xona blog post. The company also tested an anti-spoof watermark built into Pulsar signals to help receivers authenticate the satellite signals, and used software updates to improve the initial satellite’s “native positioning accuracy” from a 4.2-centimeter ranging error to 1.5-centimeter accuracy.
258 more bright dots streaking through the night sky just so we can navigate and be tracked inside buildings.
What’s the business model for private GNSS constellations? Every existing public constellation is free and launched by government agencies as a result. Centimeter level accuracy is easily achievable outdoors with existing hardware and RTK corrections. I can’t see device makers jumping on paying a licensing fee for an extra encrypted GNSS band
I remember we used to have these things called maps