2 minute read
NPL and Xona Space Systems have signed a collaboration agreement to partner on enhancing the resilience and security of the UK’s timing infrastructure. This partnership marks a significant step toward delivering robust Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services in alignment with the UK Government’s PNT 10-point plan.
Xona’s commercial PNT service, Pulsar, is set to become the world’s first private sector solution of its kind. Pulsar combines high-power signals for resiliency, data encryption and authentication for security and enhanced data services for accuracy. Delivered via a subscription model, Pulsar enables authorised receiver equipment to decode and utilise navigation signals, with integration already underway across leading GNSS receiver and simulator manufacturers.
A key feature of Pulsar is its ability to disseminate time with traceability to UTC(NPL) and other timescales through its navigation message. This capability will provide unparalleled secure and resilient access to the NPL time scale via Pulsar satellites, a critical benefit for UK timing infrastructure, which relies heavily on UTC.
Under the agreement, Xona will deploy Pulsar-enabled timing receivers at one of NPL’s Timing Innovation Nodes. These receivers will output Xona’s time reference via PPS signals, allowing real-time comparison with UTC(NPL) and providing insights into timing stability. This two-year project will span the transition from Xona’s in-orbit validation (IOV) satellite, Pulsar-0, launched in June 2025, to early production satellites, ensuring continuous measurement and performance validation.
Giorgio Taylor, Director of Business Development, UK and Europe, Xona said: "This collaboration reflects the tangible value that commercial innovation can bring to national infrastructure. By working with NPL, Xona is discovering how Pulsar’s groundbreaking capability will help government deploy resilient timing faster—leveraging the speed of our next-era architecture to bring sovereign timing everywhere GPS works today.”
Find out more or contact us with any enquiries about our timing innovation nodes
Images: Xona
14 Jan 2026Three innovation nodes at partner universities offer timing signals for research, testing and product evaluation to advance timing solutions.
Our NPLTime® Services offers industry access to terrestrial timing signals, traceable to
UTC(NPL), with service level agreements.