Aerospacelab has been selected by U.S.-based Xona Space Systems to manufacture eight additional satellites for Pulsar, a low Earth orbit (LEO) navigation constellation aimed at providing high-performance positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services, the companies said.<\/p>\n
Under the agreement, the Belgian satellite manufacturer will serve as Xona\u2019s transition manufacturing partner for the initial phase of Pulsar\u2019s deployment. Aerospacelab will supply flight-proven platforms from its Versatile Satellite Platforms line and provide systems integration expertise, while Xona develops its own satellite production capabilities in California. Launches for the newly ordered satellites are scheduled to begin in late 2026.<\/p>\n
The expanded order follows the successful Pulsar 0 mission, which validated Xona\u2019s LEO-based approach to delivering resilient navigation and timing services. The pathfinder satellite demonstrated that a LEO architecture can meet the precision, power and protection requirements needed for advanced timing applications and connected devices, according to the companies.<\/p>\n
With the additional satellites, Aerospacelab\u2019s platforms are expected to accelerate early constellation deployment and help Xona begin offering commercial services to initial customers, including distributed timing users and operators of connected devices that rely on robust PNT signals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are thrilled to support Xona in bringing Pulsar to life faster by providing an additional eight satellite platforms for their constellation,\u201d said Benoit Deper, chief executive officer of Aerospacelab. \u201cThe expansion of this partnership underscores Aerospacelab\u2019s focus on agility and scalable growth, ensuring we continue to meet our customers\u2019 needs as they evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tina Ghataore, Aerospacelab\u2019s chief strategy and revenue officer, said the order highlights demand for configurable satellite platforms. \u201cThis renewed, larger order from Xona reinforces Aerospacelab\u2019s strength in providing innovative Versatile Satellite Platforms for every mission requirement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jay Wakenshaw, chief operating officer of Xona, said the collaboration would help speed delivery of Pulsar\u2019s next phase. \u201cWorking with Aerospacelab accelerates that momentum, allowing Xona to deliver Pulsar\u2019s next era capabilities to customers sooner while we lay the foundations for long-term production in California,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2018, Aerospacelab is pursuing a vertically integrated manufacturing model and is planning to open a large-scale satellite production facility, known as The Megafactory, in Europe in 2026 to support growing constellation demand.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aerospacelab has been selected by U.S.-based Xona Space Systems to manufacture eight additional satellites for Pulsar, a low Earth orbit (LEO) navigation constellation aimed at providing high-performance positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services, the companies said. Under the agreement, the Belgian satellite manufacturer will serve as Xona\u2019s transition manufacturing partner for the initial phase of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6817,6818,233,6819,5886,20,408,6820,5889],"class_list":["post-20428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospacelab","tag-benoit-deper","tag-iss","tag-jay-wakenshaw","tag-pulsar","tag-satellite","tag-satellite-manufacturing","tag-tina-ghataore","tag-xona-space-systems"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}