GPS, Global Positioning System, was invented by the U.S. Department of Defense and Dr. Ivan Getting. The U.S. Air Force was in desperate need for a sophisticated guidance system to be used with a proposed ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) that would achieve mobility by traveling on a rail system. To register a site with the Usenet Mapping Project; which included a blank for longitude and latitude . . . preferably to ‘seconds-of-arc-accuracy.’ It became traditional to refer to this site as the ICBM Address.

In 1951 when Dr. Getting was VP for Engineering and Research at Raytheon Corporation; the first three-dimensional, time-difference-of-arrival-position-finding System was tested and suggested to the Dept.of Defense.

By 1960 this proposed technique was among the most advanced forms of navigational technology in the world. Under Dr. Getting’s direction, Aerospace engineers and scientists studied the use of satellites as the basis for a navigational system for vehicles moving rapidly in three dimensions;  envisioned and ultimately developing highly essential concepts. It is these basic/essential concepts which were the crucial stepping-stones in the development of the Global Positioning System; as we most often refer to it as - - - GPS.  

Today, common practice is GPS-equipped: fleet vehicles, public transportation systems, courier services, delivery trucks all use receivers to monitor their locations at all times for both efficiency and driver safety.

Automobile manufacturers are offering moving-map displays guided by GPS receivers as an option on new vehicles. The displays may be removed and taken into the house to plan a trip.

GPS-equipped balloons, now, monitor holes in the ozone layer over the 2 polar regions; air quality across our nation or around our planet . 

Archaeologists are locating ancient ruins, biologists and track migrating animal herds or endangered species.

The future for GPS is as unlimited as our imagination OR our necessity to improvise for a ‘need’; these new applications will continue to be created become more possible as does our technology evolve.