The first precision commercial alternative to GPS is about to go live, as six satellites designed by startup Xona Space Systems prepare to launch into orbit this month. Competing with free signals provided by governments around the world might sound like a fool's errand, but Xona is betting that navigation and timing can join the list of de facto government space monopolies disrupted by venture-backed startups.

Founded in 2019 by five engineers who met at Stanford University's aerospace engineering graduate program, Xona has been mulling this idea for a while. One of the founders, Tyler Reid, wrote his PhD thesis on using low-earth-orbit satellites to improve navigation. Over "pizza and beer chats," the friends wondered if fixing GPS's problems could be a business.

"My knee jerk was like, this is dumb," Xona CEO Brian Manning told TechCrunch. "Why would anybody replace GPS? It's free, right? And I started digging into it. People think of GPS as a free service, but the market isn't the service. The market's the hardware, and you have billions of devices being sold every year; those things aren't being given away for free. There's an immense market that is desperately looking for better performance."

But improving GPS wasn't simple. Xona had to develop a unique architecture that lets its satellites keep time without expensive atomic clocks onboard, relying instead on their proximity to Earth and close communication with ground-based sources of truth. The company also ensured its signals could be received by existing GPS receivers with a relatively simple software modification, giving it immediate market access and smoothing the regulatory path for broadcasting navigation signals.

Later this month, a SpaceX rocket is scheduled to launch six Xona satellites. Four are similar to a prototype launched last year that proved the technology; these are built around a satellite platform from Aerospace Labs. The other two were built entirely by Xona at its Burlingame, California, headquarters, and are intended to be the foundation of the company's 258-satellite operational constellation, called Pulsar.

Pulsar promises centimeter-level precision for geolocation, versus the meter-level precision of GPS, and its signal is strong enough to be detected inside buildings and in urban environments. Manning also believes it's powerful enough to deter would-be jammers and spoofers.

Once the satellites are in orbit and passing overhead the mid-latitudes about eight times a day, Xona can begin beta-testing Pulsar with real customers. Ian Gough, CEO of electronic timing company TimeBeat, says the initial pilot will allow his engineers to check and correct the timing provided by its devices around the world. By 2028, Xona hopes to offer full coverage in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea.

Xona has raised just over $300 million from venture investors since its founding, including $20 million from the U.S. Space Force. While the company is focused on offering a commercial service, the U.S. government is clearly interested in the technology, as jamming and spoofing of satellite navigation services become increasingly common in conflicts.

While there are literally billions of potential users for a new precision timing signal, Xona is also looking ahead to a world of growing autonomy. Reid, whose thesis inspired the company and who now serves as its CTO, worked on self-driving cars at Ford and saw that a service like Pulsar would be needed to realize the potential of autonomous vehicles of all stripes.

Xona's headquarters boasts an incredible view of planes landing at San Francisco International Airport. Watching the jets come in, Manning points out that among "all the forms of mass transportation, the gold standard for safety is civil aviation. We see Xona and what we're building being able to play a big part in that … to provide the service to a car, so you can feel as safe taking your hands off the wheel as you are laying back in an airliner."