Transport & space · 1960

Transit navigation satellite

The first satellite navigation system fixes ship positions from orbit.

Johns Hopkins APL scientists noticed they could track Sputnik from its Doppler shift, then inverted the idea. Transit 1B launched in April 1960 and the system served US Navy submarines from 1964. It was the direct predecessor of GPS.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Sputnik 1957
Transistor 1947

What it led to 1

GPS 1978

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Objects launched into space Latest: 4.51k per year (2025) Source: Our World in Data