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Session A11: Satellite Experimentation: Commercial Satellite Sources 1

Xona Pulsar: World’s First Over-the-air Rekeying of a Commercial GNSS Service for Defense Application
Jason Anderson, Xona Space Systems and Neal Fedora, TMAS, Trimble
Location: Room 1-3
Date/Time: Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2:30 p.m.

Xona Pulsar can significantly enhance military GPS resilience by providing a complementary PNT layer designed for operation in contested and degraded environments. Unlike traditional GPS satellites in Medium Earth Orbit, Xona’s Pulsar Low Earth Orbit (LEO) architecture delivers signals that are substantially stronger at the receiver, improving resistance to jamming, interference, and unintentional signal blockage. This higher signal power and improved geometry enable more robust tracking in challenging conditions such as urban terrain, mountainous regions, and electronic warfare environments.

Pulsar provides the world’s most advanced navigation security with built-in navigation data authentication, ranging authentication via watermark, and Dynamic Authenticated Encryption. Pulsar’s data authentication provides provable resistance to navigation message spoofing and could provide authentication to GPS navigation data. Pulsar’s watermark requires spoofers utilize sophisticated, non-miniaturized equipment to remain undetected by standard hand-held Pulsar receivers. Spoofers will be detectable for destruction by authorities and battlefield ordinance. Pulsar’s Dynamic Authenticated Encryption introduces novel encryption capabilities to navigation, including enabling at-will encryption key changes, individual user encryption transmissions without additional metadata, and Over-the-air Rekeying without human touchpoints. In this work, we demonstrate the world’s first Over-the-air rekeying of a commercial navigation signal from orbit. The demonstration utilizes orbit transmissions from Pulsar’s IOV mission. A Trimble receiver with a User-specific Product Access Key (UPAK) receives the Pulsar Navigation Message’s Product Access Key (PAK). With the PAK, the receiver is able to decrypt the authenticated navigation data. No human touch points were required beyond the initial receiver software installation.

For defense applications, Pulsar is ready to serve in augmenting GPS. Pulsar’s unique ability to provide encrypted, third-party content is a powerful capability enabler. Pulsar can provide encrypted and authenticated Pulsar and GPS navigation data. Pulsar could provide encrypted content directly to MGUEs, reducing human touch points in MGUE management and augmenting MGUE navigation capabilities. The use of any Pulsar signals can support dead reckoning, rapid signal reacquisition, and continuity of navigation during periods of GPS degradation or denial. Moreover, Pulsar can be used for GPS integrity, determined confidence in GPS measurements tracked and potentially used in the solution. The independence of the Pulsar signal enables this essential assurance. Accurate time on the battlefield is essential for effective coordination and execution. Pulsar can augment GPS during periods of denial to ensure time is maintained and accurate to execute the mission. Leveraging this powerful capability is a significant improvement for mission success in contested environments. Xona Pulsar introduces diversity into military PNT systems. This diversity strengthens overall resilience, reduces single-point-of-failure risks, and supports future PNT architectures aligned with evolving U.S. Department of Defense requirements for assured navigation and timing.

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