GPS Declassified

by Richard D. Easton

  37. National Academies, “The International Geophysical Year ,” March 16, 2010, http://www.nationalacademies.org/history/igy/.

  38. United Press, “First Man-Made Moon May Be Visible in 1957 ,” Sarasota (FL) Herald-Tribune, February 15, 1957, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19560214&id=miEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7mQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2518,3926077.

  39. United Press, “First Man-Made Moon May Be Visible. ”

  40. Dickson, Sputnik, 83.

  41. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, A Scientific Satellite Program, NRL Memorandum Report 466 (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, April 13, 1955), 2.

  42. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, Scientific Satellite Program, 2.

  43. Milton W. Rosen, The Viking Rocket Story (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955), 232.

  44. Rosen, Viking Rocket Story, 17.

  45. Naval Research Laboratory, “Viking Program ,” http://www.nrl.navy.mil/accomplishments/rockets/viking-program (accessed July 31, 2012).

  46. Roger Easton, interview by Dr. David van Keuren and James Tugman, Naval Research Laboratory History Office, Washington DC, March 8, 1996.

  47. Green and Lomask, “Seeking Government Support for a Satellite Program ,” in Vanguard: A History.

  48. John T. Mengel and Paul Herget, “Tracking Satellites by Radio ,” Scientific American, January 1958, 23–29.

  49. C. A. Schroeder, C. H. Looney Jr., and H. E. Carpenter Jr., Project Vanguard Report No. 18: Minitrack Report No. 1—Phase Measurement (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, July 26, 1957), 15.

  50. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, Scientific Satellite Program, 2–3.

  51. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, Scientific Satellite Program, 5–6.

  52. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, Scientific Satellite Program, 1.

  53. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, Scientific Satellite Program, 1.

  54. National Security Council, “NSC 5520 Draft Statement of Policy on U.S. Scientific Satellite Program ,” May 20, 1955, http://www.thespacereview.com/archive/995b.pdf.

  55. Homer J. Stewart, interview by John L. Greenberg, Pasadena CA, October–November 1982, and interview by Shirley K. Cohen, Altadena CA, November 3, 1993, Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Stewart_H (accessed March 12, 2010).

  56. Green and Lomask, “Seeking Government Support. ”

  57. White House, “Statement by James C. Hagerty ,” news release, July 29, 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene KS, http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/

  online_documents/igy/1955_7_29_Press_Release.pdf (accessed April 26, 2010).

  58. Green and Lomask, “Selecting a Satellite Plan ,” in Vanguard: A History.

  59. Clifford C. Furnas, “Why Did U.S. Lose the Race? Critics Speak Up ,” Life, October 21, 1957, 22.

  60. Green and Lomask, “Selecting a Satellite Plan. ”

  61. Dickson, Sputnik, 261; Green and Lomask, “Selecting a Satellite Plan. ”

  62. Furnas, “Why Did U.S. Lose the Race? ”

  63. Dickson, Sputnik, 85.

  64. “Memorandum of Conference with the President ,” October 9, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene KS, http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/

  research/online_documents/sputnik/10_9_57_Early_Memo.pdf (accessed April 26, 2010).

  65. National Museum of the Air Force, “Open Skies Proposal ,” December 6, 2006, http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1878.

  66. National Museum of the Air Force, “Open Skies Proposal. ”

  67. National Security Council, “NSC 5520 Draft Statement of Policy. ”

  68. Stephen E. Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 450.

  69. Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Press Conference #123 ,” October 9, 1957, transcript, Presidential Papers, Press Conference Series, Box 6, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene KS, http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/

  online_documents/sputnik/10_9_57.pdf (accessed April 26, 2010).

  70. Eisenhower, “Press Conference #123. ”

  71. Dickson, Sputnik, 148.

  72. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail, 359–60.

  73. Dickson, Sputnik, 87–89.

  74. Dickson, Sputnik, 89.

  75. Roger Easton, e-mail to Al Nagy et al., March 29, 2008.

  76. Dickson, Sputnik, 91–92.

  77. NASA.gov, “Explorer-I and Jupiter-C: The First United States Satellite and Launch Vehicle ,” http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/expinfo.html (accessed August 1, 2012).

  78. Martin Votaw, “50th Anniversary Celebration of Vanguard One ,” unpublished transcript of panel discussion, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, March 17, 2008; Gruntman, Blazing the Trail, 365.

  79. Army.mil, “Remarks of the Rev. J. Bruce Medaris (MG, U.S. Army Retired), 20th Anniversary of Explorer 1, Huntsville–Madison County Chamber of Commerce, January 31, 1978 ,” http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/medaris/remarks.html (accessed April 26, 2010).

  80. Matthew Brzezinski, Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age (New York: Times Books, 2007), 196.

  81. William J. Jorden, “‘Mighty’ Hydrogen Device Is Tested by Soviet Union; Presumably in Central Asia ,” New York Times, October 8, 1957, http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0812F63B5C127A93CAA9178BD95F438585F9.

  82. Sally Rosen, conversation with Richard Easton, June 16, 2009, Bethesda MD.

  83. Harold Callender, “Europeans Weigh Threats to World Peace ,” December 23, 1956, http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4071EFD3B5A137A93C1AB1789D95F428585F9.

  84. “Man of the Year: Up from the Plenum ,” Time, January 6, 1958, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,868089,00.html.

  85. C. D. Jackson memorandum to Henry R. Luce, October 8, 1957, in C. D. Jackson Papers, Box 69, Log-1957 (4), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene KS, http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/

  Digital_Documents/Sputnik/10-8-57_Memo.pdf (accessed April 26, 2010).

  86. White House Staff 1953–1961, “C.D. Jackson ,” Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene KS, http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/

  All_About_Ike/Presidential/White_House_Staff_1953_1961/pages/WH%20staff%20book_031_0001_jpg.htm (accessed April 26, 2010).

  87. Jackson memorandum to Luce.

  88. Eisenhower, “Press Conference #123. ”

  89. Stiles, “Press Corps Stands. ”

  90. Dickson, Sputnik, 141–45.

  91. Bille and Lishock, First Space Race, 122.

  92. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No.1, 28, 60.

  93. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No. 9: Progress through September 15, 1956, NRL Report 4850 (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, October 4, 1956), 2.

  94. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No. 20: Progress through July 31, 1957, NRL Report 5020 (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, September 16, 1957), 1.

  95. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No. 20.

  96. Gruntman, Blazing the Trail, 358.

  97. Roger Easton, “50th Anniversary Celebration of Vanguard One ,” unpublished transcript, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, March 17, 2008.

  98. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No. 20, 1.

  99. Votaw, “50th Anniversary Celebration of Vanguard One. ”

  100. Votaw, “50th Anniversary Celebration of Vanguard One. ”

  101. This entire summary of the fabrication of the satellite is based on Votaw’s recollections in “50th Anniversary Celebration of Vanguard One. ”

  102. “Vanguard’s Aftermath: Jeers and Tears. ”

  103. Green and Lomask, “From Sputnik I to TV-3. ”

  104. NASA.gov, “Sputnik 1
,” National Space Science Data Center ID: 1957-001B, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1957-001B (accessed May 12, 2010).

  105. NASA.gov, “Sputnik 2 ,” National Space Science Data Center ID: 1957-002A, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1957-002A (accessed May 12, 2010).

  106. NASA.gov, “Explorer: America’s First Spacecraft: Explorer 1 Overview ,” http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/explorer/explorer-overview.html (accessed May 12, 2010).

  107. Naval Research Laboratory, “Vanguard Project ,” http://www.nrl.navy.mil/accomplishments/rockets/vanguard-project/ (accessed July 31, 2012).

  108. Green and Lomask, “The National Academy of Sciences and the Scientific Harvest, 1957–1959 ,” in Vanguard: A History.

  109. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No. 30: Progress through December 31, 1957, NRL Report 5113 (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, March 27, 1958), 15.

  110. Project Vanguard Staff, Project Vanguard Report No. 30, 16.

  111. William H. Guier and George C. Weiffenbach, “Genesis of Satellite Navigation ,” Johns Hopkins APL Technical Digest 19, no. 1 (1998): 14–17, www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest/td/td1901/guier.pdf.

  112. Guier and Weiffenbach, “Genesis of Satellite Navigation. ”

  113. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, “An Overview of the Navy Navigation Satellite System ,” http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/Transit/ (accessed May 10, 2010).

  114. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, “Overview of the Navy Navigation Satellite System. ”

  115. Green and Lomask, “Success—and After ,” in Vanguard: A History.

  116. NASA.gov, “History of NASA GSFC Tracking Services ,” http://esc.gsfc.nasa.gov/157.html (accessed July 31, 2012).

  117. NASA.gov, “History of NASA GSFC Tracking Services. ”

  118. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman.

  119. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman.

  120. U.S. Space Command, “Space Surveillance Network ,” http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usspc-fs/space.htm (accessed July 31. 2012).

  121. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman.

  122. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman.

  123. Navy.mil, “Navy Transfers Space Surveillance Mission to Air Force ,” news release, October 20, 2004, http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=15597.

  124. Roger Easton, “In the Beginning of GPS ,” keynote address, Thirty-Second Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Reston VA, November 28, 2000.

  125. Easton, “In the Beginning of GPS. ”

  2. Weather Permitting

  1. Sarepta.org, “Navigation Satellites ,” http://www.sarepta.org/en/objekt.php?aid=209&bid=246&oid=1548 (accessed September 9, 2012).

  2. Caroline Alexander, The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 150.

  3. Mark Denny, The Science of Navigation: From Dead Reckoning to GPS (Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012), 45–47.

  4. Torben B. Larsen, “Siwa: Oasis Extraordinary ,” Saudi Aramco World, September–October 1988, 2–7, http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198805/siwa-oasis.extraordinary.htm.

  5. Pat Norris, “The Longitude Challenge—Apollo 8 ,” Navigation News: The Magazine of the Royal Institute of Navigation, March–April 2012, 16–18.

  6. Heloise Finch-Boyer, “Chart Wars ,” presentation at After Longitude—Modern Navigation in Context conference, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, March 22, 2012, http://www.rin.org.uk/Uploadedpdfs/ItemAttachments/Heloise%20Finch-Boyer%20-%20presentation-web.pdf.

  7. Daniel Gallery, Cap’n Fatso (New York: W. W. Norton, 1969), 119.

  8. Amir Aczel, The Riddle of the Compass (New York: Harcourt, 2001), 11.

  9. Aczel, Riddle of the Compass, 12–16.

  10. Astrolabes.org, “The Astrolabe: An Instrument with a Past and a Future ,” http://www.astrolabes.org (accessed June 20, 2010).

  11. Jeanne Willoz-Egnor, “Celestial Navigation Instruments: Cross-Staff ,” Institute of Navigation, Navigation Museum, http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=13&iid=26 (accessed August 8, 2012); Jeanne Willoz-Egnor, “Celestial Navigation Instruments: Octant ,” Institute of Navigation, Navigation Museum, http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=6&scid=13&iid=27 (accessed August 8, 2012).

  12. Mariners’ Museum, “Beveled Scale Sextant ,” http://www.mariner.org/collections/beveled-scale-sextant (accessed June 20, 2010).

  13. Trond Austheim and Børge Solem, “The S/S Atlantic of the White Star Line, Disaster in 1873 ,” NorwayHeritage.com, http://www.norwayheritage.com/articles/templates/great-disasters.asp?articleid=1&zoneid=1 (updated May 2006); Nova Scotia’s Electric Scrapbook, “S.S. Atlantic ,” http://ns1763.ca/hfxrm/ssatlansos.html (accessed June 14, 2011); SSAtlantic.com, “Rev. Ancient’s Account ,” http://www.ssatlantic.com/ancients.shtml (accessed October 27, 2004).

  14. Joseph Patrick Bulko, “The Story of Weems & Plath ,” Inside Annapolis, June–July 2007, http://www.insideannapolis.com/archive/2007/issue4/weems.html.

  15. N. W. Emmot, “The Grand Old Man of Navigation ,” Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute of Navigation 16, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 4–7, www.ion.org/newsletter/v16n3.pdf. See also Roger Connor, “Even Lindbergh Got Lost ,” Air and Space Magazine, February/March 2013, 28–33.

  16. Alexander H. Flax, e-mail to Richard Easton, September 2, 2012.

  17. Michael Russell Rip and James M. Hasik, The Precision Revolution: GPS and the Future of Aerial Warfare (Annapolis MD: Naval Institute Press, 2002), 19.

  18. Denny, Science of Navigation, 213.

  3. Success Has Many Fathers

  1. Arthur C. Clarke, letter to Andrew G. Haley, August 5, 1956, reproduced at TechJournal.com, “Sci-Fi Author Arthur C. Clarke Predicted GPS, Satellite TV and Cellphones ,” April 28, 2012, http://thetechjournal.com/off-topic/sci-fi-author-arthur-c-clarke-predicted-GPS-satellite-tv-and-cellphones.xhtml.

  2. Roy E. Anderson, “General Electric: Early Space Age Adventures ,” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 15, no. 3 (2008): 53.

  3. Anderson, “General Electric ,” 53.

  4. Roy E. Anderson to Eric Frazier, July 1, 2011, copy in Frazier’s files.

  5. R. E. Anderson, “A Navigation System Using Range Measurements with Cooperating Ground Stations ,” Navigation: Journal of the Institute of Navigation 2, no. 2 (Autumn 1964): 319.

  6. Philip Klass (Aviation Week & Space Technology senior editor) to Howard Marx, December 26, 1973, copy in Roger Easton’s files: “For example, the idea of one-way (passive) ranging was proposed by The National Corp., then a producer of atomic clocks, for possible use in mid-air collision avoidance systems back in the mid-fifties (as I recall) and was tested, under FAA sponsorship, in the late 1950s. The idea even then was under investigation by Sierra Research for military uses. ”

  7. Harold Rosen, conversation with Richard Easton, May 29, 2012. See also Harold A. Rosen, “Syncom: World’s First Geostationary Satellite ,” in Success Stories in Satellite Systems, ed. D. K. Sachdev (Reston VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009), 19–20.

  8. NASA.gov, “What is a Sounding Rocket ,” April 12, 2004, http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/f_sounding.html.

  9. Naval Research Laboratory, Rocket Development Branch, Scientific Satellite Program, 10.

  10. FAS.org, “U.S. Naval Space Command Space Surveillance System ,” http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/spasur_at.htm (accessed April 2, 2010).

  11. Martin Votaw, conversation with Richard Easton, September 12, 2009.

  12. Rick Sturdevant, “Tracing Connections—Vanguard to NAVSPASUR to GPS: An Interview with Roger Easton ,” High Frontier: The Journal for Space and Missile Professionals 4, no. 3 (May 2008): 53.

  13. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman.

  14. Chester Kleczek, interview by Richard Easton, June 19, 2009. Kl
eczek stated that electronically steerable radars have limitations since they do not cover much area. The continuous wave that Space Surveillance used was superior.

  15. Peter Wilhelm, conversation with Richard Easton, March 31, 2010.

  16. R. L. Easton, Space Applications Branch Technical Memorandum No. 1: An Exploratory Development Program in Passive Satellite Navigation (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, May 8, 1967), 1.

  17. Naval Research Laboratory, “Historical Data ,” unattributed Timation chronology, July 22, 1971.

  18. H. M. Smith, N. P. J. O’Hora, R. Easton, J. Buisson, and T. McCaskill, “International Time Transfer between USNO and RGO Via NTS-1 Satellite ,” paper presented at the Seventh Annual Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting, Greenbelt MD, December 1975, 341, http://www.pttimeeting.org/archivemeetings/1975papers/Vol%2007_18.pdf.

  19. Robert R. Whitlock and Thomas B. McCaskill, NRL GPS Bibliography: An Annotated Bibliography of the Origin and Development of the Global Positioning System at the Naval Research Laboratory (Washington DC: Naval Research Laboratory, June 3, 2009), 9.

  20. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman; Chester Kleczek, conversation with Richard Easton, March 31, 2010.

  21. Easton, interview by van Keuren and Tugman.

  22. Kleczek, interview by Easton.

  23. Kleczek, interview by Easton.

  24. The July 22, 1971, chronology (Naval Research Laboratory, “Historical Data ”) called this change in navigation technique the “celestial transformation. ”

  25. Thomas McCaskill and Robert Whitlock, “40th Anniversary of Historic NRL Navigation Demonstration ,” Labstracts, October 15, 2007, 6.

  26. James Buisson, e-mail to Richard Easton, August 3, 2009.

  27. Naval Research Laboratory, Timation Development Plan, NRL Report 7227, rev. ed. (Washington DC, March 2, 1971), 1.

  28. Don Jewell, “GPS Insights—January 2008 ,” GPS World, January 2008, http://www.gpsworld.com/defense/gps-insights-january-2008-8438.

  29. M. P. Gleason, “Galileo: Power, Pride, and Profit ” (PhD diss., George Washington University, 2009), 5.

  30. Anderson, “Navigation System Using Range Measurements ,” 317.