BURLINGAME, Calif. – August 3, 2026 – To deliver commercial positioning, navigation, and timing services alongside existing national infrastructure, the Federal Communications Commission granted full constellation authorization on August 3, 2026, for Xona Space Systems to broadcast its proprietary Pulsar navigation signal across its planned Low Earth Orbit network of more than 250 satellites.
The regulatory approval establishes Xona as the first private constellation operator authorized by the federal government to broadcast radio navigation signals adjacent to legacy Global Positioning System frequencies, operating alongside sovereign platforms from the United States, Europe, China, and Russia.
Signal Power and Coexistence Architecture Specifications
The Pulsar constellation is engineered to broadcast radio navigation signals within the L-band spectrum currently utilized by more than six billion Global Navigation Satellite System devices worldwide. Operating from low-altitude orbits, the platform delivers received signal power up to 100 times stronger than traditional Medium Earth Orbit GPS broadcasts, enabling signal penetration through dense structural materials and foliage.
To protect against hostile spoofing and signal manipulation, Pulsar incorporates a dynamic cryptographic watermark directly into its broadcast data stream. The system architecture allows legacy receiver hardware to process Pulsar signals via software and firmware updates, eliminating the need for dedicated silicon redesigns.
Regulatory Interoperability and Spectrum Scrutiny
Securing full constellation authorization required Xona to demonstrate that high-power broadcasts would operate within adjacent L-band allocations without causing harmful interference to civil aviation, defense, or commercial GPS users.
The regulatory ruling expands upon the initial experimental broadcast license granted for Xona’s Pulsar-0 demonstration satellite, which launched in mid-2025 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-14 mission. Since entering orbit, Pulsar-0 has completed more than 350 live transmission passes across four continents, validating signal compatibility with commercial receivers and confirming inter-constellation coexistence during operational flight passes.
Executive Directives on Coexistence Engineering
“From the beginning, we were told that what we wanted to do was impossible,” said Brian Manning, Co-Founder and CEO of Xona Space Systems. “A commercial company had never built a system like Pulsar, and no one had been authorized to introduce a new, high-power navigation signal alongside GPS. This decision is the culmination of years of engineering, testing and coordination, clearing the way for a capability the world increasingly needs.”
“Making room for something new required us to demonstrate that we understood the importance of what was already there,” said Christina Youn, General Counsel and Vice President of External Affairs at Xona Space Systems. “GPS supports aviation, communications, emergency response, financial markets and countless systems people rely on every day. We did not ask regulators or the industry to take our claims on faith. We designed for coexistence, subjected that design to rigorous scrutiny, and then proved it through live transmissions from orbit.”
Manufacturing Scaling and Orbital Launch Timeline
With regulatory clearances secured, Xona is accelerating production at its primary manufacturing plant in Burlingame, California. The company is preparing to launch its initial block of six production-class spacecraft in October 2026, establishing the foundation for continuous constellation assembly and commercial rollout across autonomous transport, critical infrastructure, and defense sectors.
