GPS is owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31.
The U.S. Department of Defense is required by law to “maintain a Standard Positioning Service (as defined in the federal radio navigation plan and the standard positioning service signal specification) that will be available on a continuous, worldwide basis” and “develop measures to prevent hostile use of GPS and its augmentations without unduly disrupting or degrading civilian uses”.
1957: when Russia launched its Sputnik 1 in 1957 and it was noted that because of the Doppler effect, they could pinpoint where the satellite was along its orbit and then worked out the reverse - pinpointing a user's location, given the satellite's location.
1959-1960: this led the US to develop ARPA in 1959, TRANSIT in 1960 - this used a constellation of five satellites and could provide a navigational fix approximately once per hour.
1964, the United States Army orbited its first Sequential Collation of Range (SECOR) satellite used for geodetic surveying. The SECOR system included three ground-based transmitters at known locations that would send signals to the satellite transponder in orbit. A fourth ground-based station, at an undetermined position, could then use those signals to fix its location precisely. The last SECOR satellite was launched in 1969.
1967, the U.S. Navy developed the Timation satellite, which proved the feasibility of placing accurate clocks in space, a technology required for GPS.
early 1970s, the ground-based OMEGA navigation system, based on phase comparison of signal transmission from pairs of stations,[27] became the first worldwide radio navigation system.
nuclear concerns of the cold war and the need for accurate location data for the United States Navy's submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) provided impetus for US Congress funding of the development of the GPS.
1973, critical satellite orbital position errors, induced by variations in the gravity field and radar refraction, etc were resolved and plans developed to launch 10 new “Block 1” Navstar-GPS satellites
1978-1985: 10 launches of Block I GPS satellites (none currently active)
1983: US President Ronald Reagan allows a degraded version of the GPS to be used by civilians after a Korean passenger plane accidentally entered Soviet air space and was shot down in 1983.
1989-1997: The first Block II GPS satellite was launched in Feb 1989 and the 24th satellite was launched in 1994. This had cost $US5b ($US11b in 2024 money). None of these are currently active.
1989: Garmin, a US sat-nav manufacturer was founded after recruiting Min H. Kao from the defense contractor Magnavox - their first product was a GPS unit for boaters released in 1990 called ProNav GPS 100. In 1991, it opened a manufacturing facility in Taiwan and the US Army became its 1st major customer.
1990-91: first conflict in which the military widely used GPS - the Gulf War
1991: DARPA's project to create a miniature GPS receiver successfully ended, replacing the previous 16 kg (35 lb) military receivers with a 1.25 kg (2.8 lb) all-digital handheld GPS receiver
1991: TomTom, a Dutch sat-nav manufacturer was founded
1993: GPS achieved initial operational capability (IOC), with a full constellation (24 satellites) available and providing the Standard Positioning Service (SPS)
1995: Full Operational Capability (FOC) was declared by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) in April 1995, signifying full availability of the military's secure Precise Positioning Service (PPS)
1996: U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a policy directive declaring GPS a dual-use system (military and civilian) and establishing an Interagency GPS Executive Board to manage it as a national asset.
1997-2004: 12 launches of Block IIR GPS satellites (7 active)
1998: StreetPilot was Garmin’s first portable navigation system for cars
2000: in response to widespread growth of differential GPS services by private industry to improve civilian accuracy, May 1, 2000, with U.S. President Bill Clinton signs a policy directive to turn off Selective Availability to provide the same accuracy to civilians that was afforded to the military.
2004: the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee was established by presidential directive to advise and coordinate federal departments and agencies on matters concerning the GPS and related systems
2004: the US government signed an agreement with the European Community establishing cooperation related to GPS and Europe's Galileo system.
2004: Qualcomm announced successful tests of assisted GPS for mobile phones
2005-2009: 8 launches of Block IIR-M GPS satellites (7 active)
2008: 1st Apple iPhone released with GPS embedded (albeit with degraded location accuracy of 10m) - the iPhone 3G which also was the 1st to have 3G mobile connectivity (the 1st iPhone was released in 2007)
2010-2016: 12 launches of Block IIF GPS satellites (11 active)
2011: Garmin released its first GPS watch
2015: high-quality Standard Positioning Service (SPS) GPS receivers provided horizontal accuracy of better than 3.5 meters
2018 onwards: 6 launches of Block IIIA GPS satellites
2020: operation of the GPS constellation is transferred to the newly established U.S. Space Force as part of its establishment
2023: the Space Force activated PNT Delta (Provisional) to manage US navigation warfare assets. 2SOPS and GPS operations were realigned under this new Delta.