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\nOne Of The First GPS Satellites…<\/p>\n
You know the calm, pleasant voice and the pinpoint accuracy.\u00a0 Without fail, that voice has guided you to your destination and back. Successfully navigating through detours and side trips.\u00a0 Along the way, have you found yourself asking, what the heck is the Global Positioning Satellite System?<\/p>\n
\nOne Of The First GPS Satellites…<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/3e\/Navstar-2.jpg\")
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\u00a0Throughout time, we have searched for ways to find our place on earth and successfully get from one point to another.\u00a0\u00a0 Sailors used to follow the coastline, move a little farther out to sea and they would follow the stars.\u00a0 Early navigational tools included star charts, sextants and a compass.\u00a0 Major developments at the time, they had their limitations.\u00a0 More reliable means were still needed.\u00a0 Early in the 20th century, radio based navigation systems were developed and used in World War II.\u00a0 Used by both ships and planes, these were again limited in accuracy and range.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By the early 1960\u2019s, the Navy, Air Force and Army were all working independently to find reliable, accurate means of navigation.\u00a0 The advent of satellites and ability to track their movement from the ground laid the foundation for today\u2019s GPS systems.\u00a0 Invented by a combined effort of the Department of Defense in the 1970\u2019s, the first GPS systems were used for military positioning, navigation and weapon aiming.\u00a0 A mere eighteen satellites and their ground stations formed the original GPS.\u00a0 These \u201cartificial stars\u201d were used as reference points to calculate geographical positions.\u00a0 In 1978, the first fully operational GPS satellite was launched.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t long before the private sector wanted part of the GPS system.\u00a0 The market demand came not only for sea navigation, but also for air travel, map making, and time reference.\u00a0 The first thriving civilian GPS market was in land surveying.\u00a0 Use of the GPS system offered greater time and cost savings in the surveying industry.\u00a0 Not long after, the FAA began setting standards for GPS performance in aircraft, increasing their use as a supplementary navigational aid, opening the door for GPS manufacturers in the airline industry.\u00a0 In 1983, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making the system available for international civil use.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By the mid 1990\u2019s, the GPS system was finally fully operational with 24 satellites in orbit.\u00a0 Demand for the systems was ever increasing, even though the civilian market was using a less than accurate system.\u00a0 In 2000, President Clinton announced the end to the Pentagon\u2019s intentional signal degradation of civil GPS signals.\u00a0 This allowed for ten times more accurate positioning in civil receivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The uses for GPS systems seem to be endless.\u00a0 Allowing us to navigate local roads and waterways accurately and safely.\u00a0 Increasing the response time for emergency personnel.\u00a0 Decreasing transit time for shipping companies.\u00a0 The field of telecommunications has also prospered from GPS advances.\u00a0 A vital national resource, GPS is a valuable system that the majority of the world has become dependent upon. As new applications continue to be developed, GPS will be a mainstay in our daily lives.\u00a0 We will continue to look to these \u201cartificial stars\u201d as a means of navigating our world.\u00a0 Accompanying us into the 21st century is that same soothing, patient voice we have come to trust.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You know the calm, pleasant voice and the pinpoint accuracy.\u00a0 Without fail, that voice has guided you to your destination and back. Successfully navigating through detours and side trips.\u00a0 Along the way, have you found yourself asking, what the heck is the Global Positioning Satellite System? One Of The First GPS Satellites…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"\n