Proposed private GPS-type satellite constellation raises $19 million
Capitalism in space: Xona, a company that wants to build a commercial GPS-type satellite constellation, has now raised $19 million in private investment capital.
The round was led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space. New investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital, and Aloniq also joined the round.
Xona is developing a commercial positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) service through a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites. The company plans to offer the service as an alternative or backup to the Global Positioning System.
It appears the commercial users of GPS want more than one American-owned system in operation in case the government’s present constellation goes out, either because of an attack, jamming, or a major technical failure, and are willing to pay for it. Xona’s constellation, once built, could initiate the full transfer of GPS responsibility from the government to the private sector.
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Capitalism in space: Xona, a company that wants to build a commercial GPS-type satellite constellation, has now raised $19 million in private investment capital.
The round was led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space. New investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital, and Aloniq also joined the round.
Xona is developing a commercial positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) service through a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites. The company plans to offer the service as an alternative or backup to the Global Positioning System.
It appears the commercial users of GPS want more than one American-owned system in operation in case the government’s present constellation goes out, either because of an attack, jamming, or a major technical failure, and are willing to pay for it. Xona’s constellation, once built, could initiate the full transfer of GPS responsibility from the government to the private sector.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
And it hopefully won’t be used to direct missiles hitting news studios and civilian train bridges like during the Clinton administration
I wonder if it wouldn’t be faster and better for them to piggy back their tech on the Starlink sats?
And Jeff, I really feel for you if you actually think that no other civilian system would ever be used by other nations or even terrorists.
The tech is out there and can not be stopped.
GPS was made for cruise missiles of course…not as a help for lost housewives…that doesn’t make me like it’s misuse. Putin exists because Clinton’s Wag the Dog.