MapLab: The Secret History of GPS

It is almost a cliché to point out how ubiquitous GPS is in modern life. Without at least 24 GPS satellites orbiting at an altitude of 12,550 miles in space, your Doordash orders, Google Maps directions, Uber rides and Amazon deliveries would not be possible. Nor would reliable financial transactions, international aviation, targeted weather forecasting, advanced search and rescue techniques – the list goes on.

But the story of how we got the Global Positioning System isn’t nearly as well known. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the technology’s birth, or at least of a couple key points in its long gestation. In April 1973, then-US Deputy Secretary of Defense William Clements signed a memo approving the Defense Navigation Satellite Development Program, which eventually built what became known as Navstar GPS. The idea was to enable the US military to navigate the globe and target weapons with pinpoint accuracy, using ultra-precise clocks on satellites.