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The first Navstar GPS satellite launches

node

The first Block I development satellite of the Navstar Global Positioning System reached orbit, beginning a validation programme intended to give the United States military a global, all-weather, passive positioning capability. Passivity was the crucial design choice: a receiver only listens, so an unlimited number of users can be served at no incremental cost and no user reveals its position by using the system. That property is what later made a military system into free global infrastructure.

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Evidence · 1
Timeline

No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.

Connections · 2
Assembled narrative · 1

Assembled from 27 blocks · 1 evidence · 17 related

  1. Story
  2. The first Block I development satellite of the Navstar Global Positioning System reached orbit, beginning a validation programme intended to give the United States military a global, all-weather, passive positioning capability. Passivity was the crucial design choice: a receiver only listens, so an unlimited number of users can be served at no incremental cost and no user reveals its position by using the system. That property is what later made a military system into free global infrastructure.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Global navigation satellite systems
  5. GPS (Navstar Global Positioning System)
  6. The first Navstar GPS satellite launches
  7. Connections
  8. GPS (Navstar Global Positioning System)
  9. Global navigation satellite systems
  10. Global navigation satellite systems
  11. The first Navstar GPS satellite launches
  12. GPS reaches full operational capability
  13. Selective Availability is switched off
  14. A GPS ground-system error disrupts timing receivers worldwide
  15. Upstream and downstream in space accounting
  16. Orbital shells as distinct economic regimes
  17. GPS (Navstar Global Positioning System)
  18. Galileo
  19. BeiDou Navigation Satellite System
  20. GNSS timing dependency
  21. The first Navstar GPS satellite launches
  22. GPS reaches full operational capability
  23. Selective Availability is switched off
  24. Galileo declares initial services
  25. BeiDou-3 completes deployment and enters global service
  26. Evidence
  27. Supports the GPS milestone dates (first Block I launch 1978, full operational capability 1995, Selective Availability discontinued 2000) and the standing policy that the civil GPS signal is provided worldwide free of direct user charge. V55 verification basis: gps.gov was not retrievable in this session; dates are stated from author knowledge and require confirmation.
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/atlas?object=EVT_GPS_FIRST_LAUNCH_1978&experience=EVT_GPS_FIRST_LAUNCH_1978