It's a great icebreaker at parties
How Does GPS Work? | Mashable Explains
The last time you used your phone to let Google Maps show you your exact location on a map, did you ever wonder how GPS can be so accurate?
The Global Positioning System (GPS) system was launched in 1973 by the United States Department of Defense (known as NAVSTAR). By 1993, there were 24 GPS satellites in orbit around the Earth, transmitting orbital and positional data that the military could use for navigation and other military purposes. Today, at the time of this writing, there are 28.
In the 1980s, the data transmitted by GPS satellites became available to the public, creating a whole market for the wide range of GPS navigation devices we know today.
