GPS
Roger Easton, NRL, USA, patent 4,210,902 of 1980. Passive ranging satellites that locate everything.
Overview
Naval Research Lab's Easton patented Timation-based satellite navigation, granted 1980 as GPS's passive-ranging foundation. The 24-satellite constellation reached full operation 1995. Civilian L1 codes, once degraded, went precise after a 2000 Clinton order, enabling car navigation, farming autopilots, and phone maps. Soviet Glonass, then Galileo and BeiDou, followed the same physics. Easton's National Medal of Technology came 2004. Twelve thousand miles up, his clocks tick your location.
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