Happy 20th Birthday American GPS

 

See the article about the 20th Birthday/Anniversary of the American GPS Constellation fully operational:

NGS – GPS 20th Birthday

  • GPS is actually older than 20 years (first GPS satellite launched in late 1970’s) but this month is the anniversary of it being a fully operational GPS constellation.
  • When did you first start using GPS?  I started in December 1996 with a Trimble ProXR and a TDC1 data collector.  I do not miss lugging around that backpack and camcorder batteries.

Trimble ProXR_1

  • I graduated to the Trimble ProXRS, Geo II, Geo III, Geo 2003, Geo 2005, Geo 2008/3000, Geo 6000 and recently the Geo 7x.  Other GPS devices along the way were Trimble Juno ST, Juno SB, Juno 3 &5, Nomad, Yuma 1 and 2, ProXRT, Pro XH and Pro6H.
  • GPS has grown up of over the years from being a CODE Only L1 solution to now Code/Carrier solution a L1/L1c/L2/L2c/L5/G1/G2 and various “M” channels for military.
  • Other GPS constellations are being built and tested such as Europe “Galileo”, China “BeiDou”,  and Japan”QZSS”.
  • GPS devices have become smaller, faster, more accurate and more versatile (more Operating systems and softwares available) over the years.  Here’s to more advances in GPS technology in the next 20 years.

View of a GPS Satellite after it was deployed from a shuttle mission.