In 2018, SpaceX will launch a new GPS satellite for the US Air Force.
GPS has been vital for militaries, governments, businesses, and everyday navigation for decades.
So who actually owns the Global Positioning System?
Well, officially GPS was created, launched, and maintained by the United States, specifically
by the Air Force Space Command.
The idea originally came after Russia launched the first ever satellite, Sputnik.
American scientists realized that they were able to calculate their position by interpreting
the signal sent down from the satellite.
Around the start of the Cold War, the US was secretly working on a way to increase the
accuracy of their nuclear warheads, as a deterrent to the Soviet Union.
By the 1980s, the positioning system was conceptually operational, but limited to military use.
However, in 1983, a Korean Air Lines flight was shot down over Russia after accidentally
entering prohibited airspace.
The event galvanized both sides of the Cold War, and in an effort to avoid similar accidents
from jeopardizing peace, President Ronald Reagan announced the existence of the Global
Positioning System, and promised to make it available for civilians when it was fully
up and running.
About a decade later, in 1994, the first twenty-four satellites necessary for accurate coverage
were launched, at the total expense of about 10 to 12 billion dollars, plus hundreds of
millions of dollars a year in maintenance.
Despite Reagan’s promise to make the system available to the public, civilians were limited
to a weaker, and intentionally degraded signal, called “Selective Availability”.
Until May 2000, this secondary signal assured the US military an advantage, in case an enemy
were to use their own GPS against them.
With the development of new technologies, this advantage soon became irrelevant, and
President Bill Clinton removed the restrictions for civilians.
Today, GPS is maintained by the US Department of Defense, and includes members from the
Department of Homeland Security, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and NASA.
In fact, the DOD is required by law to maintain continuous, worldwide standard positioning
services, due to its use in transportation, public safety, economy, science, timing, and
especially “safety of life” navigation in the air and water.
GPS’s operating cost is roughly estimated at 750 million dollars a year.
But despite its ubiquity, the US isn’t the only country to run a global positioning system.
Both India and Russia have also developed global positioning systems.
Russia’s GLONASS system was developed around the same time as GPS, however it did not manage
to reach the same level of global coverage until roughly a decade after the US’s system.
It is primarily used by the Russian military, and today actually provides a more accurate
reading of about 2 to 3 meters, compared to GPS’s, at best, 3.5 meters.
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System was only finished in 2016, and is not yet
fully operational, and additionally only covers India and the surrounding regions, making
it not nearly as useful as GLONASS or GPS.
China, Japan, and the European Union are also developing similar systems, but are much farther
behind.
GPS is integral to many navigational systems we use around the world for both military
and civilian purposes.
Every country in the world can use GPS, free of charge; but ultimately, it is owned and
operated exclusively by the United States.
We can’t do episodes like this without help from our sponsors like Domain DOT COM.
Join millions of others online with your DOT COM or DOT NET domain name.
Be recognized with the world’s premier web addresses.
And our friends at DOMAIN DOT COM is giving fans 20% off domain names and web hosting
when you use coupon code SEEKER at checkout.
Pretty much everyone who owns a smartphone has access to GPS, but how exactly does it
track your location?
Find out in this video from DNews!
Thanks for watching
Seeker Daily.
Make sure to like and subscribe for new videos every day.