Why Did the United States Open Up GPS Access?

GPS is a basic resource on any mobile device, and it has forever changed the way we move around. But at over 40 years old, it actually has a very interesting history. At first, GPS access was exclusive to the U.S. military and still remains under its control, but things changed in 1983 after a decision by Ronald Reagan's government. Unfortunately, that decision came about as a result of a terrible tragedy in which more than 260 people died.

The Origins of GPS

GPS took its first steps as a project in 1973, in an attempt to overcome the limitations of existing navigation systems and to combine technologies from previous initiatives, including TRANSIT (which assisted in the navigation of submarines loaded with Polaris missiles), Timation (which placed high-precision clocks in space), and SECOR (geodetic surveys).

In its early days it was known as DNSS, short for "Defense Navigation Satellite System", and it soon adopted the name Navstar. That was the designation used when the first Block I satellite was launched on February 22, 1978. Navstar 1 was accompanied by nine other satellites (ten were planned, but Navstar 7 was destroyed in a launch failure), and the last one was decommissioned in March 1996.

A Tragic Turning Point

By then, GPS was already usable by civilian devices, though with reduced accuracy. After all, the system was not supposed to hand a tactical advantage to America's enemies, quite the opposite.

The policy change came in the days after September 1, 1983, when a Soviet Su-15 interceptor shot down Korean Air Lines flight KAL007. The plane had accidentally entered restricted Soviet airspace, and the defense forces believed it was a U.S. spy aircraft. 269 people lost their lives (246 passengers and 23 crew), marking one of the most critical moments of the Cold War.

The Soviet Union actively suppressed information about the accident for ten years (it even used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to block a condemnatory resolution), and on September 16, President Ronald Reagan announced that GPS would be freely accessible to everyone, without charge, thereby spurring its technological development. Had it been available on civilian flights, GPS could have corrected KAL007's navigation error within seconds.

In May 2000, the concept of selective availability was discontinued, following a prior order issued by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Civilian devices now had access to the same level of precision as military ones, recognizing the enormous economic potential of GPS. If necessary, the armed forces retain the ability to deploy jamming elements, something that happened during the Kargil War in 1999 and during the occupation of Iraq.