The Global Positioning System, GPS, grew from research done by Albert Einstein, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Russia's Sputnik satellite, the U.S. Navy, I.I. Rabi, Norman Ramsey, the British National Physical Laboratory, Jerrold Zacharias, Alfred Kastler, Charles Townes, and the U.S. Air Force -- and countless others.
The first Navstar satellite was launched in 1978, the beginning of the GPS. Today, there are 24 satellites, circling the earth every 12 hours, beaming information that provides extremely accurate, 3-dimensional information about location, velocity, and time to anyone, military or civilian, who has a GPS receiver. GPS provides continuous real-time information.