4.1 Who Made GPS?

The acronym “GPS” is used in common vocabulary to describe any number of devices that use Global Positioning System technology to tell us where we are, but the term is often used inaccurately. The term “GPS” originated with the initial designers and developers of the setup, the U.S. Department of Defense, and is part of the official name of the system called NAVSTAR GPS. Other countries besides the United States have developed or are currently engaged in developing systems like the NAVSTAR GPS, so strictly speaking we should only use the term “GPS” when we’re referring to the United States system. Since the United States isn’t the only nation with this technology, it would be more accurate to describe GPS as one type of global navigation satellite system (GNSS).

GPS isn’t the first satellite navigation system. During the 1960s, the U.S. Navy used a system called Transit, which used satellites to determine the location of sea-going vessels. The drawback of Transit was that it didn’t provide continuous location information—you’d have to wait a long time to get a fix on your position rather than always knowing where you were. Another early satellite navigation program of the 1960s, the Naval Research Laboratory’s Timation program, used accurate clock timings to determine locations from orbit. The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978, and the twenty-fourth GPS satellite was launched in 1993, completing an initial full operational capability of satellites of the system for use. Today, GPS is overseen and maintained by the 50th Space Wing, a division of the U.S. Air Force headquartered at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado.