gps became available for civilian use in 1993.
gps became available for civilian use in 1993.
when did gps become available for civilian use?
1993
the gps project was launched by the u.s. department of defense in 1973 for use by the united states military and became fully operational in 1995. it was allowed for civilian use in the 1980s. advances in technology and new demands on the existing system have now led to efforts to modernize the gps and implement the next generation of gps block iiia satellites and next generation operational control system (ocx). announcements from vice president al gore and the white house in 1998 initiated these changes. in 2000, the u.s. congress authorized the modernization effort, gps iii. during the 1990s, gps quality was degraded by the united states government in a program called "selective availability"; this was discontinued in may 2000 by a law signed by president bill clinton.
global positioning system
in 1960, the us navy put into service its transit satellite based navigation system to aid in ship navigation.the us navy in the mid 1960’s conducted an experiment to track a submarine with missiles with six satellites and orbiting poles and was able to observe satellite changes. between 1960 and 1982, as the benefits were been shown, the us military consistently improved and refined its satellite navigation technology and satellite system. in 1973, the us military began to plan for a comprehensive worldwide navigational system which eventually became known as the gps (global positioning system). in 1983, in the wake of the tragedy of the downing of the korean airlines flight 007, an aircraft which was shot down while in soviet airspace due to a navigational error, president reagan made the navigation capabilities of the existing military gps system available for dual civilian use. however, civilian use was initially only a slightly degraded "selective availability" positioning signal. this new availability of the us military gps system for civilian use required a certain technical collaboration with the private sector for some time, before it could become a commercial reality. in 1989, magellan navigation inc. unveiled its magellan nav 1000, the world’s first commercial handheld gps receiver. these units initially sold for approximately us$2,900 each. in 2000, the clinton administration removed the military use signal restrictions, thus providing full commercial access to the us gps satellite system.
gps navigation device