Xona Space Systems has received a contract with Air Force Research Lab to demonstrate resilient commercial PNT for DoD missions, the company said. The award, through a Space Technology Advanced Research fast track program, brings the company’s contracts to $20 million.
Xona will demonstrate its PULSAR satellite navigation service on several commercial user devices and in scenarios where GPS and other GNSS may be compromised, the company said. As part of the contract, Xona, which plans to launch a PULSAR satellite this summer, has partnered with QinetiQ, StarNav, and Locus Lock.
“This contract is enabling us to demonstrate not only the advanced capabilities these receivers can achieve with the PULSAR service, but also the utility of combining mass produced hardware with a securely controlled PNT service to support anything from small drones to large DoD systems, said Brian Manning, Xona CEO and co-founder, in a statement.
Astrion Canned from Resilient GPS Program…
While such companies as Xona are making inroads with the U.S. military, one company has been bounced from the U.S. Space Force Resilient GPS program. Following an initial design review, Astrion’s contract was discontinued, according to Defense News.
Last fall, the services’ acquisition element, Space Systems Command, awarded Astrion’s Astranis and Axient, L3Harris and Sierra Space, Astranis and Axient $10 million contracts to provide early plans for small, and low-cost, GPS satellites.
The R-GPS constellation may cost as much as $1 billion over the next five years. However, the satellites will cost much less than the larger Block IIIF GPS satellites.
